Thrift and Thriving in America
Title | Thrift and Thriving in America PDF eBook |
Author | Joshua Yates |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Total Pages | 2465 |
Release | 2011-07-29 |
Genre | Social Science |
ISBN | 0199339767 |
Thrift is a powerful and evolving moral ideal, disposition, and practice that has indelibly marked the character of American life since its earliest days. Its surprisingly multifaceted character opens a number of expansive vistas for analysis, not only in the American past, but also in its present. Thrift remains, if perhaps in unexpected and counter-intuitive ways, intensely relevant to the complex issues of contemporary moral and economic life. Thrift and Thriving in America is a collection of groundbreaking essays from leading scholars on the seminal importance of thrift to American culture and history. From a rich diversity of disciplinary perspectives, the volume shows that far from the narrow and attenuated rendering of thrift as a synonym of saving and scrimping, thrift possess an astonishing capaciousness and dynamism, and that the idiom of thrift has, in one form or another, served as the primary language for articulating the normative dimensions of economic life throughout much of American history. The essays put thrift in a more expansive light, revealing its compelling etymology-its sense of "thriving." This deeper meaning has always operated as the subtext of thrift and at times has even been invoked to critique its more restricted notions. So understood, thrift moves beyond the instrumentalities of "more or less" and begs the question: what does it mean and take to thrive? Thoroughly examining how Americans have answered this question, Thrift and Thriving in America provides fascinating insight into evolving meanings of material wellbeing, and of the good life and the good society more generally, and will serve as a perennial resource on a notion that has and will continue to shape and define American life.
Thrift and Thriving in America
Title | Thrift and Thriving in America PDF eBook |
Author | Joshua Yates |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Total Pages | 633 |
Release | 2011-03-01 |
Genre | Social Science |
ISBN | 0199772959 |
Thrift is a powerful and evolving moral ideal, disposition, and practice that has indelibly marked the character of American life since its earliest days. Its surprisingly multifaceted character opens a number of expansive vistas for analysis, not only in the American past, but also in its present. Thrift remains, if perhaps in unexpected and counter-intuitive ways, intensely relevant to the complex issues of contemporary moral and economic life. Thrift and Thriving in America is a collection of groundbreaking essays from leading scholars on the seminal importance of thrift to American culture and history. From a rich diversity of disciplinary perspectives, the volume shows that far from the narrow and attenuated rendering of thrift as a synonym of saving and scrimping, thrift possess an astonishing capaciousness and dynamism, and that the idiom of thrift has, in one form or another, served as the primary language for articulating the normative dimensions of economic life throughout much of American history. The essays put thrift in a more expansive light, revealing its compelling etymology-its sense of "thriving." This deeper meaning has always operated as the subtext of thrift and at times has even been invoked to critique its more restricted notions. So understood, thrift moves beyond the instrumentalities of "more or less" and begs the question: what does it mean and take to thrive? Thoroughly examining how Americans have answered this question, Thrift and Thriving in America provides fascinating insight into evolving meanings of material wellbeing, and of the good life and the good society more generally, and will serve as a perennial resource on a notion that has and will continue to shape and define American life.
History of the Thrift Movement in America
Title | History of the Thrift Movement in America PDF eBook |
Author | Simon William Straus |
Publisher | Theclassics.Us |
Total Pages | 56 |
Release | 2013-09 |
Genre | |
ISBN | 9781230356631 |
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1920 edition. Excerpt: ... PART II LITTLE TALKS ON THRIFT Herewith are presented a number of Little Talks on Thrift. These have appeared from time to time in the newspapers of the United States as a part of the educational campaign of the American Society for Thrift. The Author desires to take advantage of this opportunity in acknowledging, on behalf of the Thrift Society, his appreciation of the splendid cooperation which has been accorded by the press of the country in this work. Money-making And Money-saving An eminent European financier whose family for many generations has been a power in international banking affairs once said that it required a good deal of boldness and a great deal of caution to make a great fortune, and that when you got it, it required ten times greater wit to keep it. There is a distinct difference between the power of making money and the power of saving money. Making money is largely a knack--a special gift. Financiers, like poets, are born, not made. But thrift is just as essential to the money-maker as it is to the money-saver. No matter how shrewd a man may be nor how keenly developed his instincts for acquiring wealth, he will never be successful unless an element of thrift is woven into all his activities. The so-called plunger--the meteoric financier--may, at times, seem able to defy prudent practices and the principles of thrift. However, such success is seldom permanent. Wealth gained by a sort of legerdemain rather than through the working out of sound business practices nearly always proves transitory. The majority of men who have built up great fortunes, though they have, in many instances, risen rapidly, owe their success primarily to thrift. It was this that gave them the start they needed, and it was the development of...
Franklin's Thrift
Title | Franklin's Thrift PDF eBook |
Author | David Blankenhorn |
Publisher | Templeton Foundation Press |
Total Pages | 272 |
Release | 2011-04-15 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 1599473526 |
Americans today often think of thrift as a negative value—a miserly hoarding of resources and a denial of pleasure. Even more telling, many Americans don't even think of thrift at all anymore. Franklin’s 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. Franklin's thrift became the cornerstone of a new kind of secular faith in the ordinary person's 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 children's 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 society's 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 It’s a Wonderful Life to a history of the roles played by mutual savings banks, credit unions, and thrift stores in America’s national thrift movement. It also includes actual policy recommendations for our present situation.
History of the Thrift, Movement in America (Classic Reprint)
Title | History of the Thrift, Movement in America (Classic Reprint) PDF eBook |
Author | S. W. Straus |
Publisher | Forgotten Books |
Total Pages | 270 |
Release | 2018-01-16 |
Genre | Business & Economics |
ISBN | 9780483195998 |
Excerpt from History of the Thrift, Movement in America Here and there a man has dared assert the righteousness Of thrift and to practice its doctrine. NO man in our century has done so much toward bringing the people to a realizing sense Of the crime Of wastefulness, and Of the absolute necessity for the proper practice of economy, as has the author Of the present book. A member of a large family, and with a father who had to make his own way in the world, he early absorbed lessons Of honesty, Of industry, of tenacity of purpose, Of economy; Of making the best use of what is available, and of shaping conditions to meet future needs, such as has made him careful for himself not only, but concerned for the welfare of others. With thrift as precept and practice entering into the very warp and woof Of the commercial, the moral, the spiritual life of the man - endowed by nature as wise and far-seeing, with an inherent de sire to serve - there early came to Simon W. Straus. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
History of the Thrift Movement in America
Title | History of the Thrift Movement in America PDF eBook |
Author | Simon William Straus |
Publisher | |
Total Pages | 288 |
Release | 1920 |
Genre | Saving and investment |
ISBN |
Thrift
Title | Thrift PDF eBook |
Author | Andrew L. Yarrow |
Publisher | |
Total Pages | 209 |
Release | 2014 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 9781625341310 |
"In this lively and engaging book, Andrew L. Yarrow tells the story of a national movement that promoted an amalgam of values and practices ranging from self-control, money management, and efficiency to conservation, generosity, and planning for the future -- all under the rubric of 'thrift'. Emerging in tandem and in tension with the first flowerings of consumer society, the thrift movement flourished during the 1910s and 1920s and then lingered on the outskirts of American culture from the Depression to the prosperous mid-twentieth century. A post-World War II culture that centered on spending and pleasure made the early-twentieth-century thrift messages seem outdated. Nonetheless, echoes of thrift can be found in currently popular ideas of 'sustainability', and 'simplicity' and in efforts to curtail public and private debt." -- Back cover.