Bankruptcy and debt collection in liberal capitalism : Switzerland, 1800-1900 / Mischa Suter ; translated by Adam Bresnahan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Suter, Mischa.

Series:

Social history, popular culture, and politics in Germany.

Social history, popular culture, and politics in Germany

Standardized Title:

Rechtstrieb : Schulden und Vollstreckung im liberalen Kapitalismus 1800-1900. English

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Bankruptcy--Switzerland--History--19th century.

Bankruptcy.

Debt--Switzerland--History--19th century.

Debt.

Capitalism--Switzerland--History--19th century.

Capitalism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (337 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Ann Arbor, Michigan : University of Michigan Press, 2021.

Language Note:

Translated from the German.

Summary:

Drawing on perspectives from anthropology and social theory, this book explores the quotidian routines of debt collection in nineteenth-century capitalism. It focuses on Switzerland, an exemplary case of liberal rule. Debt collection and bankruptcy relied on received practices until they were standardized in a Swiss federal law in 1889. The vast array of these practices was summarized by the idiomatic Swiss legal term "Rechtstrieb" (literally, "law drive"). Analyzing these forms of summary justice opens a window to the makeshift economies and the contested political imaginaries of nineteenth-century everyday life. Ultimately, the book advances an empirically grounded and theoretically informed history of quotidian legal practices in the everyday economy; it is an argument for studying capitalism from the bottom up.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Acknowledgments to the German Version

Acknowledgments to the English Translation

Introduction

1. Enter Kaufmann

2. Law as Local Knowledge 1800-1870

3. Theoretical Interlude: The Anthropology of Debt

4. Debt and Subjectification in Narrative

5. Bankruptcy and Social Classification

6. Collateral: Confusion over Persons and Things

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 279-316) and index.

Description based on information from the publisher.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9780472128853

047212885X

OCLC:

1245237871