Financing the American Dream: A Cultural History of Consumer Credit

Debunking what he calls the ""myth of lost economic virtue""--the notion that Americans lived debt-free until the advent of consumer credit gave rise to a kind of collective hedonism corrosive to traditional moral values--Calder traces the uses of credit and historical attitudes toward debt back to the mid-19th century. These attitudes have always been contradictory, according to Calder, who teaches history at Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill. Money-ethic literature of the Victorian era, for instance, distinguished ""productive credit,"" used to finance labor or business (a popular epigram of the period asserted that ""one never becomes rich until he is in debt""), from ""consumptive credit,"" exemplified by ""shivering youths who pawned overcoats to pay gambling debts [and] sallow New York dandies with showy chains on their vest."" The watershed in the history of consumer credit, according to Calder, was the 1920s, when a new method of credit, the installment plan, was popularized and legitimized by the vibrant automobile industry. Calder is at his best in these two historical periods, drawing extensively on anecdotal and literary evidence to create a lively narrative. But as Calder notes throughout his book, debt has always remained a private affair, and the hard numbers behind these trends were never collected. The absence of statistical support makes his contention that the consumer credit culture has promoted thrift and discipline less persuasive. The title is also misleading, as Calder has little to say about the history of credit in the post-World War II years and beyond. Illustrations. (Apr.)