
English | 2022 | ISBN: 0691235384 | 409 pages | True PDF EPUB | 38.92 MB
A comprehensive and illuminating account of the history of credit in America—and how it continues to divide the haves from the have-nots
The Economy of Promises is a far-reaching study of credit in nineteenth- and twentieth-century America. Synthesizing and surveying economic and social history, Bruce Carruthers examines how issues of trust stitch together the modern U.S. economy. In the case of credit, that trust involves a commitment by debtors to repay money they have borrowed from lenders. Each promise poses a fundamental question: why does the lender trust the borrower?