Keith Hart is concerned with money in all its manifestations throughout history. He draws a parallel between the social dimension of money - where it comes from and how it is used - and the well of memory we all draw on as individuals going through the trajectory of life. Hence, the "memory bank" of the book's title.

One illustration of the cultural power of money is the strength of the euro-sceptic lobby in Britain and its attachment to the national sterling currency versus the euro.

The Memory Bank is an intriguing kaleidoscope of ideas and histories, alternatives and suggestions. Hart offers his wonderful book as a lucky dip - he suggests you follow an argument as long as you want, go back and forth as you please and above all feel free to agree and disagree with him.

However, this book is not an exercise in academic dilettantism. It is subtitled Money in an Unequal World and Hart is very serious about how money might become a genuinely liberating force for mankind.

He sees the Internet as the key to this possibility because it can free consumers from the economic controls of nation states and institutional market forces and allow us to enter into alternative exchanges such as bartering.

Targeted marketing and personal banking are important features of the communications revolution which empower the individual consumer.

The more transactions we engage in and the more information about ourselves we exchange, the "repersonalisation of complex economic life" becomes increasingly possible.

As capitalism enters yet another phase, could the democratic undercurrents of the virtual world help the cause of the individual at the expense of the stock exchanges, banks and governments?

Hart is refreshingly passionate about redressing the wrongs of the world and is obliged to point out why global inequality is a problem because of "two decades of `loadsamoney' economics" (the list includes threats to democracy, peace and market demand).

The Memory Bank is a treasure trail of history, economics and philosophy and Hart is a proud "classicist". His notes to further reading at the end of each chapter include Adam Smith, John Locke, Karl Marx and Maynard Keynes.

By going beyond the normal confines of academic books Keith Hart follows in the footsteps of the writers he admires most.