Review by Choice Review
Mann (law and history, Univ. of Pennsylvania) has written an interesting account of the evolution of the treatment of insolvency in the early Republic from rigid Puritan standards that viewed bankruptcy as moral weakness and lack of virtue to bankruptcy being seen as a normal consequence of risk taking increasingly evident in the marketization of economic activity. Among the topics treated are the relationship between debtor and creditor and the changing legal and social implications of a variety of debt instruments; the chaotic conditions of debtors' prison in the early Republic; the political issues and events leading to the federalization of bankruptcy law in the early 19th century; and a detailed analysis of several early contentious and complicated bankruptcy cases. However, in spite of the passage of the first permanent bankruptcy law in 1898, the tension between bankruptcy viewed as moral versus economic failure remains to this day, even though, as Mann concludes, there is "abundant empirical proof that individuals file for bankruptcy for reasons of genuine financial distress untouched by the fraud or irresponsibility alleged by modern moralists." Summing Up: Recommended. Public and academic library collections; upper-division undergraduates through faculty. F. Petrella emeritus, College of the Holy Cross
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This subtle, wide-ranging study examines changing attitudes towards insolvency and their importance to the economy and self-image of the early American republic. Mann, a professor of law and history at the University of Pennsylvania, shows how debtor-relief movements like Shay's Rebellion, a post-Revolution wave of business failures and the need to pay off the public Revolutionary War debt made the problem of debt central to the politics of the new Republic, while the growth of consumer and credit markets enmeshed ever greater portions of the public in debt. A complex imagery of manhood, honor and dependency surrounded the perception of debt in the public mind, while debtors began to invoke the Rights of Man as an argument against debtors' prison. The result, Mann argues, is that by the end of the 18th century insolvency increasingly came to be viewed as economic misfortune rather than moral failure-but only for some. Bankruptcy laws were written to shield wealthy commercial debtors, while broke farmers and workers continued to face prison. Mann examines the political, class and regional antagonisms surrounding the issues of debt and bankruptcy, and draws on newspapers, popular literature and profiles of individual debtors to evoke the complex emotions aroused by debt. The result is an elegantly written blend of economic, political and cultural history that puts in context a problem that is still with us today. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
This new work from Mann (law & history, Univ. of Pennsylvania) examines the relationship between creditors and debtors during late 18th-century America. He specifically focuses on the transformation of society's view of indebtedness from a moral failing to an economic one. Throughout most of history, debt was considered a moral sin punishable by imprisonment. However, this perception began to change in the late 18th century because of numerous factors that included increasing commercialization, the availability of paper currency, and the fact that many prominent men lost their fortunes speculating in land and other ventures. Mann uses the Bankruptcy Act of 1800 as the defining moment of this transition. This short-lived act, hitherto unthinkable, gave debt relief to commercial entrepreneurs whose ventures had failed. The author quotes liberally from lawyers, judges, politicians, debtors, and creditors of the era. This thoroughly researched work is an excellent resource for graduate students and scholars.-Robert K. Flatley, Kutztown Univ. of Pennsylvania (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Thomas Jefferson died owing the equivalent of millions of dollars, while the richest man in revolutionary America did prison time for not paying his bills. "Debt was an inescapable fact of life in early America," writes Mann--a fact with considerable political and economic implications. Bankruptcy, that familiar constant in an age of boom and bust, has a moral as well as financial component. Deservedly or not, in the early days of the American republic, shame and mistrust attached to a debtor who sought shelter and relief under the law, notes the author (Law and History/Univ. of Pennsylvania), quoting a toast offered in the New York debtors' prison when Congress finally passed a short-lived national bankruptcy bill in 1800: "May the pride of every debtor be to pay his just debts, if ever in his power; and shun offers of credit in future as destructive to his life, liberty, and property." Yet early Americans depended on the extension of credit to finance new farms, factories, and residences, to tame the frontier, and to bring goods to market. They also depended on the mercy of the courts to keep them out of prison when, as often happened, they failed in their various ventures. Mann offers the instructive case of Robert Morris, the J. P. Morgan of his day, who "embraced debt as the engine of his vast speculations" and refused to "moralize failure." In the author's view, Morris perfectly illustrates the reigning attitudes of the time: on the one hand, economic failure was personal failure, but on the other it was simply part of the cost of doing business. Mann also examines the history of national bankruptcy laws, which ran counter to the view held by Jefferson and many other leaders that debt was the province of the individual states and not the federal government. A fascinating work of economic history that sheds light on daily life in the young Republic.
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Review by Choice Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review
