The Price of Misfortune

""A detailed account of debtor rights in the 'Age of Capital.' Platt brilliantly weaves together legal, political, social and economic history into a truly interdisciplinary narrative of how some Americans in the red received legal protection from their creditors--while others did not. At a time when debt forgiveness has gone from theory to practice, this book is more important than ever."" -- Eli Cook, author of The Pricing of Progress ""Daniel Platt has written a remarkably rich, meticulous, and illuminating book about debt in the United States. Platt's wide-ranging study employs the techniques of intellectual, legal, labor, and cultural history to explore the transformation of debt in the period from the Civil War to the New Deal. In addition to offering a refreshingly original narrative of the history of the Gilded  Age and Progressive era, this book offers a learned meditation on how conceptions about debt shaped the very meaning of slavery, citizenship, and freedom. With attention to the bottom up and the top down, The Price of Misfortune highlights how debt structured the lives of freedpeople, women, and workers, alongside the history of capitalists and politicians reconsidered and remade the politics and economics of debt in modern America."" -- Lawrence B. Glickman, Cornell University ""The Price of Misfortune combines distinctive historical imagination, analytical power, and extensive, penetrating research. In exploring the dilemmas posed by poverty in the American democratic polity, Daniel Platt sheds new light on inequality, coercion, dependence, and differences of race and gender as he traces how notions of moral and dangerous debtors became pervasive amid the development of capitalism and state formation. This is a terrific book; standing at the intersection of legal, cultural, and economic history, it will surely become a leading contribution to all of these fields.""   -- Amy Dru Stanley, University of Chicago ""The Price of Misfortune is an outstanding and important book, and anyone interested in the intersections of American finance, law, and culture will find this work enlightening. Daniel Platt shows how Americans used the law to mediate the relationship between debt and freedom during a critical period in American economic history. Equally as important, he reminds us that debt is—and has always been—about more than just the monthly bill."" * History: Reviews of New Books * ""Platt’s book is succinct, well-researched, skillfully composed, and deeply conversant in its interwoven historiographies. The author adds to our understanding of family financial life by contextualizing shifting laws on debt and freedom in the wake of abolition. Scholars interested in the histories of debt, progressive legal reform, and family economic life should read it carefully."" * The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era * "" . . . Platt’s narrative invites readers to think through how the story of debtors’ rights might have continued to develop, a testament to his compelling and thought-provoking analysis."" * Social History * ""The Price of Misfortune offers important perspective on these tensions and should encourage scholars of law and society to continue to mine the intersection of law, culture, and politics in their exploration of debt’s burden."" * Law & Society Review * ""Platt set out to write a book about debt. He begins with the historical concern over the way debt limited freedom and moves through time to show not only how debt affected different social groups but also how the discourse of debt shifted from the pre-depression view that debt was bad for the individual and society to the postwar view that it was a positive good. At the same time, Platt elucidates how debt and credit functioned to reinforce racial and gender inequalities. The Price of Misfortune begins as a good book and ends as a great one."" * Journal of American History *