Working for Debt : Banks, Loan Sharks, and the Origins of Financial Exploitation in the United States.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bittmann, Simon.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Consumer credit--Law and legislation--United States--History.

Consumer credit.

Consumer credit--United States--History.

Loans, Personal--United States--History.

Loans, Personal.

United States--Social policy.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (0 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New York : Columbia University Press, 2024.

Summary:

Working for Debt explores how the fight against wage loans divided the American credit market along class, race, and gender lines. Simon Bittmann argues that the moral and political crusades of Progressive Era reformers helped create the exclusionary credit markets that favored white male breadwinners.

Contents:

Intro

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part I: Exploitation

1. The Time of Credit: Debt and Social Stratification in Illinois, 1900-1917

2. A Racial Economy of Obligation: Credit, Work, and Justice in the Industrial South, 1900-1920

Part II: Regulation

3. Financial Slavery: Crusading for Markets in Georgia, New York, and Illinois

4. The Plight of the White Breadwinner: Money, Morals, and Welfare in the Progressive Era

5. White Loans, Black Sales: Fighting Georgia Salary Buyers, 1924-1931

Part III: Segmentation

6. From Usury to Consumer Credit: The Shame of Kentucky, 1928-1934

7. Leading the Middle Class Out of the Depression: Personal Finance in the 1930s

8. Is Banking Moneylending? Capital, Community, and Exclusion in the New Deal

Conclusion

Acknowledgments

Appendix to Chapter 1: The Classification of Loan Justifications

Notes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9780231554763

0231554761

OCLC:

1431977895