Eighteenth-century Britain is often understood as a time of commercial success, economic growth, and improving living standards. Yet during this period, tens of thousands of men and women were imprisoned for failing to pay their debts. The Poverty of Disaster tells their stories, focusing on the exp...

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Bibliographic Details

Main Author:	Paul, Tawny 1982- (Author)
Format:	Electronic eBook
Language:	English
Published:	Cambridge Cambridge University Press 2019
Series:	Cambridge studies in early modern Britain
Subjects:	Geschichte 1700-1800 Wirtschaftliche Lage Armut Schulden Großbritannien Hochschulschrift
Online Access:	BSB01 FHN01 UBG01 Volltext
Summary:	Eighteenth-century Britain is often understood as a time of commercial success, economic growth, and improving living standards. Yet during this period, tens of thousands of men and women were imprisoned for failing to pay their debts. The Poverty of Disaster tells their stories, focusing on the experiences of the middle classes who enjoyed opportunities for success on one hand, but who also faced the prospect of downward social mobility. Tawny Paul examines the role that debt insecurity played within society and the fragility of the credit relations that underpinned commercial activity, livelihood, and social status. She demonstrates how, for the middle classes, insecurity took economic, social, and embodied forms. It shaped the work that people did, their social status, their sense of self, their bodily autonomy, and their relationships with others.
Item Description:	Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 07 October 2019)
Physical Description:	1 Online-Ressource (xiii, 285 Seiten)
ISBN:	9781108690546
DOI:	10.1017/9781108690546