Navigating Failure: Bankruptcy and Commercial Society in Antebellum...
Balleisen, Edward J. Navigating Failure: Bankruptcy and Commercial Society in Antebellum America. Chapel Hill, Carolina:The University of North Carolina, [2001]. First edition. xv, 322 pp. Softcover. Fine. Ex-owner's ink inscription to front pastedown, otherwise internally clean. $15. * An innovative socio-legal and economic history exploring the profound impact of financial insolvency on the evolution of American capitalism, business culture, and debtor-creditor law. Balleisen makes extensive use of federal court records generated by the short-lived Federal Bankruptcy Act of 1841, tracking the commercial biographies of hundreds of failed business owners. The narrative examines how the legal system shifted away from punitive traditions to construct mechanisms that absorbed risk, ultimately shaping a mid-19th-century entrepreneurial ethos that balanced speculative capitalism with a white-collar desire for legal safety net structures.
Price: $15.00
Book number 86847