Borrow: Book Talk

Once considered a stain on one's character, consumer debt first became an accepted--and even glamorous--part of culture in the 1920s, just before the Great Depression. The ever-expanding smorgasbord of seductive financial arrangements, which made it seem like we were gettting something for nothing, is part of the story told in Louis B. Hyman's new book Borrow: The American Way of Debt (A Vintage Original, 2012). Hyman, an economic historian at Cornell University, will present a talk about what's new and what's not in our national and personal relationship with debt.