Pundits will argue that the 2008 financial crisis was the first crash in American history driven by consumer debt, but William & Mary history professor Scott Nelson demonstrates in his new book that consumer debt has underpinned almost every major financial panic in the nation's history. Scott will be discussing his book, "A Nation of Deadbeats: An Uncommon History of American Financial Disasters," on Monday, Oct. 22 from 7:30-9 p.m. at Williamsburg Regional Library, 515 Scotland Street.
In his book, Nelson shows that in each financial crisis, the chain of banks, brokers, moneylenders and insurance companies that separated borrowers and lenders made it impossible to distinguish good loans from bad. Bound up in this history are stories of national banks funded by smugglers, fist fights in Congress over the gold standard, America's early dependence on British bankers and presidential campaigns forged in controversies over private debt.
This event is presented by Friends of Williamsburg Regional Library and co-sponsored with Earl Gregg Swem Library in celebration of National Friends of Libraries Week.
For more information, visit https://www.wrl.org/events/nation-deadbeats-uncommon-history-american-financial-disasters