It is commonly imagined that in recent years the rampant growth of consumer credit has lured American consumers into a crippling state of indebtedness, a state that has upended old cultural values of Puritan thrift and stimulated a frenzy of consumption. Drawing on the sociological concept of government and informed by a historical perspective, Marron presents a much more complex and nuanced reality. From its early antecedents in nineteenth century salary lending and instalment selling, she shows how the emergence and growth of consumer credit in the United States have always been subject to shifting regimes of control and regulation.

Autorentext
DONNCHA MARRON is Lecturer in Sociology in the School of Applied Social Studies at Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, UK

Inhalt
Fishing for Sharks and Governing Small Loans Consuming by Instalments: The Rise of Retail Credit Assembling the Automobile, Reassembling Thrift Mass Credit, Mass Society and their Discontents Plastic Credit, Plastic Lifestyles Credit Reporting and Consumer Surveillance Risk and Technologies of Credit Scoring Borrowing on the Fringe: The Fate of the Risky Risk, Identity and the Consumer Securing the Self Conclusion: Taking Life