Credit and Community: Working-Class Debt in the UK since 1880

— —

Sean O'Connell (Senior Lecturer, School of History and Anthropology, Queen's University, Belfast)

Credit and Community

Name: Credit and Community
Price: 296 AUD
Availability: OutOfStock
ISBN: 9780199263318

Working-Class Debt in the UK since 1880

Sean O'Connell (Senior Lecturer, School of History and Anthropology, Queen's University, Belfast)

$296

Hardback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We will update you on expected arrival time to us. If this delay is too long, please let us know within 2 business days and we can give you options regarding cancelling or adjusting your order. More details on cancelling your order can be found in our Terms of Trade.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

Oxford University Press
29 January 2009

British & Irish history; Consumerism; Social classes; Economic history; Credit & credit institutions

Credit and Community examines the history of consumer credit and debt in working class communities. Concentrating on forms of credit that were traditionally very dependent on personal relationships and social networks, such as mail-order catalogues and co-operatives, it demonstrates how community-based arrangements declined as more impersonal forms of borrowing emerged during the twentieth century. Tallymen and check traders moved into doorstep moneylending during the 1960s, but in subsequent decades the loss of their best working class customers, owing to increased spending power and the emergence of a broader range of credit alternatives, forced them to focus on the 'financially excluded'. This 'sub-prime' market was open for exploitation by unlicensed lenders, and Sean O'Connell offers the first detailed historical investigation of illegal moneylending in the UK, encompassing the 'she usurers' of Edwardian Liverpool and the violent loan sharks of Blair's Britain. O'Connell contrasts such commercial forms of credit with formal and informal co-operative alternatives, such as 'diddlum clubs', 'partners', and mutuality clubs. He provides the first history of the UK credit unions, revealing the importance of Irish and Caribbean immigrant volunteers, and explains the relative failure of the movement compared with Ireland. Drawing on a wide range of neglected sources, including the archives of consumer credit companies, the records of the co-operative and credit union movements, and government papers, Credit and Community makes a strong contribution to historical understandings of credit and debt. Oral history testimony from both sides of the credit divide is used to telling effect, offering key insights into the complex nature of the relationship between borrowers and lenders.

By: Sean O'Connell (Senior Lecturer School of History and Anthropology Queen's University Belfast)
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 222mm, Width: 149mm, Spine: 23mm
Weight: 525g
ISBN: 9780199263318
ISBN 10: 0199263310
Pages: 318
Publication Date: 29 January 2009
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Professional & Vocational , A / AS level , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Introduction. On easy terms? Borrowing and lending in the working class community 1: Credit on the doorstep: the tallymen 2: The rise of the Provident system: check trading 3: Retail capitalism in the parlour: mail order catalogues 4: The moneylender unmasked 5: Doorstep moneylending since the 1950s 6: Formal and informal co-operative credit 7: Renewed hope for mutuality: credit unions Conclusion. Easy terms remain elusive

Sean O'Connell first monograph - The car in British society: class, gender and motoring (Manchester University Press, 1998) was part of the shift in British social and cultural history away from the study of production towards the analysis of consumption and consumers. His more recent projects have continued this interest. Amongst topics he has analyzed have been the history of men's consumer magazines, and the history of `joyriding.' He has published his work in journals such as Economic History Review, Twentieth Century British History, and the British Journal of Criminology. His research has been supported by grants from the ESRC, the Leverhulme Trust, and the AHRC. His interest in the issue of consumer credit began with his co-authorship (with Dilwyn Porter and Richard Coopey) of Mail order retailing in Britain: a business and social history (Oxford University Press, 2005) and culminates with this monograph on working class experiences of consumer credit since 1880.

Reviews for Credit and Community: Working-Class Debt in the UK since 1880

[A] careful and thorough study of the role of credit in working-class communities in Britain from the late nineteenth century to the present... [an] informative study. Peter Gurney, 20th Century British History Credit's centrality to the current economic crisis makes the publication of Sean O'Connell's social history of working-class credit consumption particularly timely. Although the credit crunch came too late to be included in this book, the portrait of a complex relationship between lenders and borrowers over the past 120 years should be required reading for those suggesting we are living on the brink of a new economic epoch. Times Higher Education