the emerging world of capitalism and risk in America Levy, Jonathan 1978- creator text bibliography mau Cambridge, Mass Harvard University Press 2012 monographic eng

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414 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm. "Focusing on the hopes and anxieties of ordinary people, Jonathan Levy shows how risk developed through the extraordinary growth of new financial institutions--insurance corporations, savings banks, mortgage-backed securities markets, commodities futures markets, and securities markets--while posing inescapable moral questions. For at the heart of risk's rise was a new vision of freedom. To be a free individual, whether an emancipated slave, a plains farmer, or a Wall Street financier, was to take, assume, and manage one's own personal risk. Yet this often meant offloading that same risk onto a series of new financial institutions, which together have only recently acquired the name "financial services industry." Levy traces the fate of a new vision of personal freedom, as it unfolded in the new economic reality created by the American financial system. Amid the nineteenth-century's waning faith in God's providence, Americans increasingly confronted unanticipated challenges to their independence and security in the boom and bust chance-world of capitalism. Freaks of Fortune is one of the first books to excavate the historical origins of our own financialized times and risk-defined lives." The assumption of risk -- The perils of the seas -- The actuarial science of freedom -- The failure of the freedman's bank -- Betting the farm -- Fraternity in the age of capital -- Trading the future -- The trust question. Jonathan Levy. Includes bibliographical references and index. n-us--- Capitalism United States History 19th century Capitalismo Historia Estados Unidos Siglo XIX Risk Sociological aspects History 19th century Sociología del riesgo Risk-taking (Psychology) United States History 19th century United States Economic conditions 19th century United States Social conditions 19th century Estados Unidos Condiciones económicas Siglo XIX Estados Unidos Condiciones sociales Siglo XIX HC 105 L668f 2012 330.12/2097309034 9780674736351 (pbk.) 0674736354 (pbk.) 9780674047488 (alk. paper) 0674047486 (alk. paper) 2012014805 DLC 120413 20230411090827.0 17254870 eng