David Blankenhorn - Franklins Thrift: The Lost History of an American Virtue

Americans today often think of thrift as a negative valuea miserly hoarding of resources and a denial of pleasure. Even more telling, many Americans dont even think of thrift at all anymore. Franklins Thrift challenges this state of mind by recovering the rich history of thrift as a quintessentially American virtue. The contributors to this volume trace how, from the eighteenth century on, the idea and practice of thrift has been a robust part of the American vision of economic freedom and social abundance. For Benjamin Franklin, who personified and promoted the idea, thrift meant working productively, consuming wisely, saving proportionally, and giving generously. Franklins thrift became the cornerstone of a new kind of secular faith in the ordinary persons capacity to shape his lot and fortune in life. Later chapters document how in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, thrift moved into new domains. It became the animating idea behind social movements to promote childrens school savings, create mutual savings banks and credit unions for working men and women, establish a federal savings bond program, and galvanize the nation to conserve resources during two world wars. Historians, enthusiasts of Americana or traditional American virtues, and anyone interested in resolving our societys current financial woes will find much to treasure in this diverse collection, with topics ranging from the inspirational lessons we can learn from the film Its a Wonderful Life to a history of the roles played by mutual savings banks, credit unions, and thrift stores in Americas national thrift movement. It also includes actual policy recommendations for our present situation.