Research Catalog

Title

The fragile middle class : Americans in debt / Teresa A. Sullivan, Elizabeth Warren, Jay Lawrence Westbrook.

Author

Sullivan, Teresa A., 1949-

Publication

New Haven : Yale University Press, [2000], ©2000.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Warren, Elizabeth.
• Westbrook, Jay Lawrence.

Description

xvii, 380 pages : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

• "The authors of this book analyze court records and demographic data on thousands of bankruptcy cases, as well as debtors' own poignant accounts of the reasons for their bankruptcies. For many middle-class Americans, the findings show, financial stability is fragile - almost any setback can be disastrous. The erosion of job stability, divorce and family instability, the visible and invisible costs of medical care, the burden of home ownership, and the staggering weight of consumer debt financed with plastic combine to threaten the financial security of growing numbers of middle-class families. The authors view the bankruptcy process in the light of changing cultural and economic factors and consider what this may signify for the future of a large, secure, and dynamic middle class."--Jacket.
• "The authors of this book analyze court records and demographic data on thousands of bankruptcy cases, as well as debtors' own poignant accounts of the reasons for their bankruptcies. For many middle-class Americans, the findings show, financial stability is fragile - almost any setback can be disastrous.
• The erosion of job stability, divorce and family instability, the visible and invisible costs of medical care, the burden of home ownership, and the staggering weight of consumer debt financed with plastic combine to threaten the financial security of growing numbers of middle-class families. The authors view the bankruptcy process in the light of changing cultural and economic factors and consider what this may signify for the future of a large, secure, and dynamic middle class."--BOOK JACKET.

Subjects

• Faillite > États-Unis
• Mittelstand
• Crédit à la consommation > États-Unis
• Schulden
• Finances personnelles > États-Unis
• Bankruptcy > United States
• Consumer credit > United States
• Finance, Personal > United States
• USA
• United States

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [297]-365) and index.

Contents

Americans in financial crisis -- Middle-class and broke: the demography of bankruptcy -- Unemployed or underemployed -- Credit cards -- Sickness and injury -- Divorce -- Housing -- The middle class in debt.

ISBN

• 0300079605 (alk. paper)
• 9780300079609 (alk. paper)
• 0300091710 (pbk.)
• 9780300091717 (pbk.)

LCCN

99041894

OCLC

• ocm41991451
• 41991451
• SCSB-3866814

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries