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Working for Debt : Banks, Loan Sharks, and the Origins of Financial Exploitation in the United States by Simon Bittmann (2024, Hardcover)

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About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherColumbia University Press

ISBN-100231202881

ISBN-139780231202886

eBay Product ID (ePID)18065343215

Product Key Features

Number of Pages360 Pages

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

LanguageEnglish

SubjectUnited States / 20th Century, Economic History, Finance / General, Sociology / General

Publication Year2024

TypeTextbook

AuthorSimon Bittmann

Subject AreaSocial Science, Business & Economics, History

FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Height0.9 in

Item Weight22.3 Oz

Item Length9.2 in

Item Width6.1 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceScholarly & Professional

LCCN2023-053612

Dewey Edition23/eng/20240126

ReviewsA fascinating social history of wage credit and a powerful contribution to the expanding sociological study of exploitation., Bittmann's rigorous, deeply insightful account argues that moral crusades against the loan shark "evil" hid an uncomfortable reality - many Americans could not earn enough to survive the merciless demands of capitalism - and illustrates how efforts to stamp out predatory lending ultimately produced new forms of racial inequality and economic stratification that persist to this day.

IllustratedYes

Dewey Decimal332.024

Table Of ContentIntroduction 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

SynopsisWorking 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., In the early twentieth century, wage loans became a major source of cash for workers all over the United States. From Black washerwomen to white foremen, Illinois roomers to Georgia railroad men, workers turned to labor income as collateral for borrowing capital. Networks of companies started profiting from payday and property advances, exposing debtors to the grim prospects of garnishments of their wages and possessions in order to mitigate the risk of default. Progressive and later New Deal reformers sought to eradicate these practices, denouncing "loan sharks" and "financial slavery" as major threats to a new credit democracy. They proposed fair credit as a universal solution to move past industrial poverty and boost consumer freedom--but in doing so, reformers, lenders, and bankers limited credit access to the white middle-class constituencies seen as worthy of protection against extortion. 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. The politics of credit expansion served to obscure the failures of U.S. capitalism, using the "loan shark" as a scapegoat for larger, deeper depredations. As credit became a core feature of U.S. capitalism, the association of legitimate borrowing with white middle-class households and the financial exclusion of others was entrenched. Blending economic sociology with business, labor, and social history, this book shows how social stratification shaped credit markets, with enduring consequences for class, race, and gender inequalities.

LC Classification NumberHG3756.U54B58 2024