LEADER 04830nam 2200781 a 450 001 9910455530703321 005 20200520144314.0 010 $a1-282-45782-9 010 $a1-4008-2283-1 010 $a9786612457821 010 $a1-4008-1117-1 024 7 $a10.1515/9781400822836 035 $a(CKB)111056486505702 035 $a(EBL)537654 035 $a(OCoLC)700686841 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000155137 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11155745 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000155137 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10112160 035 $a(PQKB)11080357 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000436543 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11313262 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000436543 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10427883 035 $a(PQKB)11417851 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC537654 035 $a(OCoLC)51542676 035 $a(MdBmJHUP)muse36071 035 $a(DE-B1597)446274 035 $a(OCoLC)979881342 035 $a(DE-B1597)9781400822836 035 $a(PPN)187309310 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL537654 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10035775 035 $a(CaONFJC)MIL245782 035 $a(EXLCZ)99111056486505702 100 $a19980701d1999 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aur|n|---||||| 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 10$aFinancing the American dream$b[electronic resource] $ea cultural history of consumer credit /$fLendol Calder 205 $aCore Textbook 210 $aPrinceton, N.J. $cPrinceton University Press$d1999 215 $a1 online resource (400 p.) 300 $aRevision of author's thesis (doctoral)--University of Chicago, 1993. 311 $a0-691-07455-0 311 $a0-691-05827-X 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references (p. 305-364) and index. 327 $apt. 1. Getting trusted : debt and credit before consumer credit -- pt. 2. Getting the goods : the making of a credit revolution -- pt. 3. Getting credit : the legitimization of consumer debt. 330 $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. 606 $aConsumer credit$zUnited States$xHistory 606 $aConsumption (Economics)$zUnited States$xHistory 606 $aConsumers$zUnited States$xHistory 608 $aElectronic books. 615 0$aConsumer credit$xHistory. 615 0$aConsumption (Economics)$xHistory. 615 0$aConsumers$xHistory. 676 $a332.7/0973 700 $aCalder$b Lendol Glen$01046314 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910455530703321 996 $aFinancing the American dream$92473133 997 $aUNINA