Political Development of American Debt Relief

"This book is about why debt relief was a salient political issue for so long and why it then ceased to be one. It is also about the United States' constitutional tradition, and the contradictions it embodies. Tracing the geographic, sectoral, and racial politics of debt relief over time--and examining the roles that social movements, interest groups, and constitutional interpretation played--Emily Zackin and Chloe N. Thurston show how the politics of debt relief has interacted with race and other social hierarchies that have conditioned both state action and debtors' opportunities to mobilize. Although the twentieth and early twenty-first century saw the erosion of debt protection, history reminds us that Americans once mounted large-scale grassroots campaigns for debt relief. These activists made radical claims about economic justice, and they reshaped constitutional law and the American state"--

About the author

Emily Zackin is associate professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University.

Product details

• Authors: Chloe N. Thurston, Emily Zackin, Emily Thurston Zackin, Zackin Emily
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.05.2024
• EAN: 9780226832357
• ISBN: 978-0-226-83235-7
• No. of pages: 248
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Business > Economics; Economics, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Public Policy / Economic Policy, POLITICAL SCIENCE / American Government / General, POLITICAL SCIENCE / American Government / National, Political Economy, United States of America, USA, Central / national / federal government policies, Central / national / federal government, debt relief;racialized safety net;constitutional development