John D. Turner has been a Professor of Finance and Financial History at Queen's University Belfast since 2005. At the time of his appointment to his chair, he was one of the youngest full professors in Queen's University. He is the founder and director of the Queen's University Centre for Economic History. John Turner teaches money, banking and finance to undergraduate and postgraduate students. He is also an active blogger - he writes a blog ([...] aimed at his students and interested others, which centres on the past, present and future of finance. His research, which has been published in all the leading economic and business history journals, as well as economics journals, is focused on the long-run evolution and development of banking, banking crises, bubbles, corporate law, and financial markets. His research has been funded by the British Academy, Economic and Social Research Council, and the Leverhulme Trust. He has held several distinguished visiting positions during his career - he has been a Houblon-Norman Fellow at the Bank of England and an Alfred D. Chandler Fellow at Harvard Business School.

Acknowledgements; 1. Introduction: holding shareholders to account; 2. Banking instability and risk shifting; 3. The evolution of British banking structure and stability since 1800; 4. Major and minor British banking crises since 1800; 5. Banking stability, shareholder liability and bank capital; 6. Averting or creating banking crises? The lender of last resort and bank rescues; 7. Banking stability and bank regulation; 8. Restoring banking stability: policy and political economy; Bibliography; Index.