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008 210830t20091999nju fo d z eng d
020 _a9780691074559
_qprint
020 _a9781400822836
_qPDF
024 7 _a10.1515/9781400822836
_2doi
035 _a(DE-B1597)9781400822836
035 _a(DE-B1597)446274
035 _a(OCoLC)979881342
040 _aDE-B1597
_beng
_cDE-B1597
_erda
050 4 _aHG3756.U54
072 7 _aHIS036060
_2bisacsh
082 0 4 _a332.70973
084 _aonline - DeGruyter
100 1 _aCalder, Lendol
_eautore
245 1 0 _aFinancing the American Dream :
_bA Cultural History of Consumer Credit /
_cLendol Calder.
250 _aCore Textbook
264 1 _aPrinceton, NJ :
_bPrinceton University Press,
_c[2009]
264 4 _c©1999
300 _a1 online resource (400 p.) :
_b19 halftones
336 _atext
_btxt
_2rdacontent
337 _acomputer
_bc
_2rdamedia
338 _aonline resource
_bcr
_2rdacarrier
347 _atext file
_bPDF
_2rda
505 0 0 _tFrontmatter --
_tContents --
_tAcknowledgments --
_tIntroduction. CREDIT, CONSUMER CULTURE, AND THE AMERICAN DREAM --
_tPART ONE: GETTING TRUSTED: DEBT AND CREDIT BEFORE CONSUMER CREDIT --
_tPART TWO: GETTING THE GOODS: THE MAKING OF A CREDIT REVOLUTION --
_tPART THREE: GETTING CREDIT: THE LEGITIMIZATION OF CONSUMER DEBT --
_tEpilogue --
_tNotes --
_tIndex
506 0 _arestricted access
_uhttp://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec
_fonline access with authorization
_2star
520 _aOnce there was a golden age of American thrift, when citizens lived sensibly within their means and worked hard to stay out of debt. The growing availability of credit in this century, however, has brought those days to an end--undermining traditional moral virtues such as prudence, diligence, and the delay of gratification while encouraging reckless consumerism. Or so we commonly believe. In this engaging and thought-provoking book, Lendol Calder shows that this conception of the past is in fact a myth. Calder presents the first book-length social and cultural history of the rise of consumer credit in America. He focuses on the years between 1890 and 1940, when the legal, institutional, and moral bases of today's consumer credit were established, and in an epilogue takes the story up to the present. He draws on a wide variety of sources--including personal diaries and letters, government and business records, newspapers, advertisements, movies, and the words of such figures as Benjamin Franklin, Mark Twain, and P. T. Barnum--to show that debt has always been with us. He vigorously challenges the idea that consumer credit has eroded traditional values. Instead, he argues, monthly payments have imposed strict, externally reinforced disciplines on consumers, making the culture of consumption less a playground for hedonists than an extension of what Max Weber called the "iron cage" of disciplined rationality and hard work. Throughout, Calder keeps in clear view the human face of credit relations. He re-creates the Dickensian world of nineteenth-century pawnbrokers, takes us into the dingy backstairs offices of loan sharks, into small-town shops and New York department stores, and explains who resorted to which types of credit and why. He also traces the evolving moral status of consumer credit, showing how it changed from a widespread but morally dubious practice into an almost universal and generally accepted practice by World War II. Combining clear, rigorous arguments with a colorful, narrative style, Financing the American Dream will attract a wide range of academic and general readers and change how we understand one of the most important and overlooked aspects of American social and economic life.
530 _aIssued also in print.
538 _aMode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
546 _aIn English.
588 0 _aDescription based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 30. Aug 2021)
650 7 _aHISTORY / United States / 20th Century.
_2bisacsh
850 _aIT-RoAPU
856 4 0 _uhttps://doi.org/10.1515/9781400822836
856 4 0 _uhttps://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9781400822836
856 4 2 _3Cover
_uhttps://www.degruyter.com/cover/covers/9781400822836.jpg
942 _cEB
999 _c205254
_d205254