Insurance era : risk, governance, and the privatization of security in postwar America / Caley Horan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Horan, Caley, author.

Series:

Chicago scholarship online.

Chicago scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Insurance--United States--History--20th century.

Insurance.

United States--History--1945-.

United States.

United States--Civilization--1945-.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (264 p.) : 13 halftones

Place of Publication:

Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2021.

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Actuarial thinking is everywhere in contemporary America, an oft-unnoticed byproduct of the postwar insurance industry's political and economic influence. Calculations of risk permeate our institutions, influencing how we understand and manage crime, education, medicine, finance, and other social issues. Caley Horan's remarkable book charts the social and economic power of private insurers since 1945, persuasively arguing that these institutions' actuarial practices played a crucial - and crucially unexplored - role in insinuating the social, political, and economic frameworks of neoliberalism into everyday life. Analyzing insurance marketing, consumption, investment, and regulation, Horan asserts that postwar America's obsession with safety and security fueled the exponential expansion of the insurance industry and the growing importance of risk management in countless fields.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Introduction

Part I Selling “Self-Made” Security

1 Insurance Marketing in the Wake of the New Deal

2 “Facing the Future’s Risks”: Governing through Education and Public Service

Part II. Investing in Privatization

3 “Public Enterprises in Private Hands”: Investing in Urban Renewal

4 “A Mighty Pump”: Financing Suburbanization

Part III. Defending Discrimination

5 “Communities without Hope”: Urban Crisis and Insurance Redlining

6 The Unisex Insurance Debate and the Triumph of Actuarial Fairness

Epilogue: Imagining Insurance Futures

Acknowledgments

Notes

Index

Notes:

Also issued in print: 2021.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from home page (viewed on December 7, 2021).

ISBN:

9780226784410

022678441X

OCLC:

1247656051