'Trumbull pursues the problem of American indebtedness in ways unlike other books published on the subject, and his style is clear and reader-friendly. The central claim that emerges is counterintuitive, yet will make scholars working to understand modern credit markets wonder, like me, that no one had seen this before. Trumbull's argument is tremendously illuminating and largely persuasive. He has made a significant contribution to what we know about the history of consumer credit and its continuing social significance.' Lendol Calder, Augustana College 'This will be an important book, and it is an empirical gem on the development of consumer credit and the policies that regulate it in France and the United States. It suggests far-reaching implications for how ideas are born of material economic interests and then come to outlive the interest coalitions that gave rise to them. This book will help American readers understand the systemic dimensions of the credit predicament in which they find themselves.' Pepper D. Culpepper, European University Institute 'In his exploration of this divergence, Trumbull remains skeptical of the oft-cited link between consumerism and credit as well as the notion that credit expanded, especially to low-income groups, as the social safety net in the US began to fray in the 1980s. Instead, he traces the differences in outcomes to the emergence of different coalitions of social and political groups with varying degrees of acceptance of consumer credit Summing up: recommended.' S. Paul, Choice
