A History of the Federal Reserve, Volume I: 1913-1951 (University of Chicago Press, November 2002), by AEI resident scholar Allan H. Meltzer, includes previously unpublished records of official meetings and conversations at the time of creation of the Federal Reserve System. Meltzer reveals that the Federal Reserve System was originally meant to be a largely passive, decentralized system of regional banks supervised by a politically appointed board in Washington.

The 1913 to 1951 period covered in volume one of A History of the Federal Reserve covers the creation of the Federal Reserve, and events such as the financing of two World Wars, the prosperity of the 1920s, the great depression, and the start of the Korean War. The volume ends with the beginning of the modern era of central banking in the United States, when the Treasury-Federal Reserve Accord freed the Federal Reserve System from Treasury control. Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, will introduce Allan H. Meltzer.