Description
Book SynopsisWhat can we learn from East Asian and European countries that have fostered enduring cultures of thrift over the past two centuries? This title tells how other nations aggressively encouraged their citizens to save by means of special savings institutions and savings campaigns.
Trade Review"Garon makes a powerful case that savings isn't about culture. It's policy... You'll think about savings policies differently after [you] pick up a copy of Beyond Our Means."--Christopher Farrell, economics editor of Marketplace Money "Professor Garon offers brilliant scholarship, engaging reading, and some practical insights for dealing with our current financial crisis worldwide. An insightful and provocative book that ... will be a unique and important volume for historians, policymakers, and the general public."--Claude Ury, San Francisco Book Review "How the Anglo-world came to live 'beyond their means ... while the world saves' is the big question of Sheldon Garon's fascinating book. It could not be more timely. Readers who worry that it might be too technical, do not fear. This is a history of flesh and blood, as Garon reclaims the topic from the economists. Facts and figures are surrounded by real people and rich illustrations that convey how passionate societies came to be about saving. Postal saving has never been so sexy."--Frank Trentmann, BBC History Magazine "Garon's policy recommendations could help shift the national trend towards saving more and position Americans towards greater financial health."--Worth "[O]ne of the world's leading authorities on the history of saving."--Joshua Rothman, Boston Globe "[A] fascinating new book... Garon believes the tide can turn, and offers some levelheaded policy suggestions for how America can restore a lasting balance between spending and saving."--Larry Cox, King Features Weekly Service "[A] very important book for critics of capitalism... Garon explains in an ambitious book that roams across centuries and continents ... why much of Europe and Asia embraced, and stuck with, a savings culture while the US first adopted and then abandoned one. It's intriguing social history."--Stephen Matchett, Australian "Garon's story is interesting and informative when focused on the history of small saving and is a recommended read."--Thomas F. Cargill, Pacific Affairs "This book is a model for how historians might re-engage with matters of economy and business using the insights and tools developed during the cultural turn."--American Historical Review "This book is a model for how historians might re-engage with matters of economy and business using the insights and tools developed during the cultural turn."--Kenneth Lipartito, American Historical Review "Garon has provided an account that shows, as with the study of consumption, the limitations of economic understandings of this routine aspect of human behaviour. It is doubtful that there will now be a scholarly turn to savings on a level equal to the outpouring of work on consumer society that has occurred over the last thirty years. But should there be so, then Beyond Our Means would be an excellent place to start."--Matthew Hilton, Social History "Transnational history at its most compelling, Beyond Our Means reveals why some nations save so much and others so little."--World Book Industry "Beyond Our Means is a big book that is very engagingly written, and it deserves a wide general readership. It concerns modern international history in general, though it grows out of work in Japanese history... The kind of constructive reaching out to wider audiences shown in this book is a model for scholars in the various fields of Japan studies."--Mark Metzler, Journal of Japanese Studies "[A] historian of modern Japan, driven by his concerns for America's financial future, has devoted years of research to writing a global history of saving, and he has produced a superb book... [A] timely history book of great contemporary relevance [that] has already embarked on a journey in new directions for public policy and global historical studies."--Elya J. Zhang, Reviews in American History
Table of ContentsIntroduction 1 Chapter 1: The Origins of Saving in the Western World 17 Chapter 2: Organizing Thrift in the Age of Nation-States 48 Chapter 3: America the Exceptional 84 Chapter 4: Japanese Traditions of Diligence and Thrift 120 Chapter 5: Saving for the New Japan 143 Chapter 6: Mobilizing for the Great War 168 Chapter 7: Save Now, Buy Later: World War II and Beyond 194 Chapter 8: "Luxury is the Enemy": Japan in Peace and War 221 Chapter 9: Postwar Japan's National Salvation 255 Chapter 10. Exporting Thrift, or the Myth of "Asian Values" 292 Chapter 11. "There IS Money. Spend It": America since 1945 317 Chapter 12. Keep on Saving? Questions for the Twenty-fi rst Century 356 Acknowledgments 377 Appendix 381 Abbreviations 383 Notes 385 Selected Bibliography 435 Index 449
