Franklin's Thrift: The Lost History of an American Virtue Book

Introduction David Blankenhorn Barbara Dafoe Whitehead Sorcha Brophy-Warren ix

Part One Franklin's Thrift: The Creation of an American Value

1 Franklin's Way to Wealth Barbara Dafoe Whitehead 3

Part Two Thrift after Franklin: Institutions and Movements

2 U.S. Mutual Savings Banks and the "Savings Bank Idea": The Virtue of Thrift as an Institutional Value Sorcha Brophy-Warren 29

3 Thrift for a New Century: Public Discussions about Thrift in the 1910s and 1920s Sara Butler Nardo 57

4 A Century of Thrift Shops Alison Humes 97

5 In Savings We Trust: Credit Unions and Thrift Clifford N. Rosenthal 127

Part Three For a New Thrift: Meeting the Twenty-First Century Challenge

6 Confronting the American Debt Culture Barbara Dafoe Whitehead 145

7 Crafting Policies to Encourage Thrift in Contemporary America Alex Roberts 165

8 Private Enterprise's Role in Increasing Savings Ronald T. Wilcox 187

Conclusion David Blankenhorn Barbara Dafoe Whitehead Sorcha Brophy-Warren 207

Notes 211

Contributors 243

Index 247