Volume 50, Number 10 · June 12, 2003
Debt and Democracy
By Gordon S. Wood
Republic of Debtors: Bankruptcy in the Age of American Independence
by Bruce H. Mann
Harvard University Press, 344 pp., $29.95
A Free Nation Deep in Debt: The Financial Roots of Democracy
by James Macdonald
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 564 pp., $30.00
Perhaps it's the total collapse of major corporations like Enron, WorldCom, and Global Crossing, or the over 60,000 companies like US Airways and United Airlines that have sought bankruptcy protection in the past two years, or important countries like Argentina defaulting on their debt, or the record numbers of people using bankruptcy to wipe out their mounting personal debts. But whatever the reason, there is an increased interest everywhere in the problems of debt and bankruptcy—an interest reflected in the publication of these two history books.
Review, 4404 words
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