This book surveys ‘thrift’ through its moral, religious, ethical, political, spiritual and philosophical expressions, focussing in on key moments such as the early Puritans and Post-war rationing, and key characters such as Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Smiles and Henry Thoreau. The relationships between thrift and frugality, mindfulness, sustainability, and alternative consumption practices are explained, and connections made between myriad conceptions of thrift and contemporary concerns for how consumer cultures impact scarce resources, wealth distribution, and the Anthropocene. Ultimately, the book returns the reader to an understanding of thrift as it was originally used - to ‘thrive’ - and attempts to re-cast thrift in more collective, economically egalitarian terms, reclaiming it as a genuinely resistant practice.

This book surveys 'thrift' through its moral, religious, ethical, political, spiritual and philosophical expressions, focussing in on key moments such as the early Puritans and Post-war rationing, and key characters such as Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Smiles and Henry Thoreau. The relationships between thrift and frugality, mindfulness, sustainability, and alternative consumption practices are explained, and connections made between myriad conceptions of thrift and contemporary concerns for how consumer cultures impact scarce resources, wealth distribution, and the Anthropocene. Ultimately, the book returns the reader to an understanding of thrift as it was originally used - to 'thrive' - and attempts to re-cast thrift in more collective, economically egalitarian terms, reclaiming it as a genuinely resistant practice.

Americans today often think of thrift as a negative value—a miserly hoarding of resources and a denial of pleasure. Even more telling, many Americans don't even think of thrift at all anymore. Franklin’s Thrift challenges this state of mind by recovering the rich history of thrift as a quintessentially American virtue. The contributors to this volume trace how, from the eighteenth century on, the idea and practice of thrift has been a robust part of the American vision of economic freedom and social abundance. For Benjamin Franklin, who personified and promoted the idea, thrift meant working productively, consuming wisely, saving proportionally, and giving generously. Franklin's thrift became the cornerstone of a new kind of secular faith in the ordinary person's capacity to shape his lot and fortune in life. Later chapters document how in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, thrift moved into new domains. It became the animating idea behind social movements to promote children's school savings, create mutual savings banks and credit unions for working men and women, establish a federal savings bond program, and galvanize the nation to conserve resources during two world wars. Historians, enthusiasts of Americana or traditional American virtues, and anyone interested in resolving our society's current financial woes will find much to treasure in this diverse collection, with topics ranging from the inspirational lessons we can learn from the film It’s a Wonderful Life to a history of the roles played by mutual savings banks, credit unions, and thrift stores in America’s national thrift movement. It also includes actual policy recommendations for our present situation.

In this surprising new look at how clothing, style, and commerce came together to change American culture, Jennifer Le Zotte examines how secondhand goods sold at thrift stores, flea markets, and garage sales came to be both profitable and culturally influential. Initially, selling used goods in the United States was seen as a questionable enterprise focused largely on the poor. But as the twentieth century progressed, multimillion-dollar businesses like Goodwill Industries developed, catering not only to the needy but increasingly to well-off customers looking to make a statement. Le Zotte traces the origins and meanings of "secondhand style" and explores how buying pre-owned goods went from a signifier of poverty to a declaration of rebellion. Considering buyers and sellers from across the political and economic spectrum, Le Zotte shows how conservative and progressive social activists--from religious and business leaders to anti-Vietnam protesters and drag queens--shrewdly used the exchange of secondhand goods for economic and political ends. At the same time, artists and performers, from Marcel Duchamp and Fanny Brice to Janis Joplin and Kurt Cobain, all helped make secondhand style a visual marker for youth in revolt.

Excerpt from History of the Thrift, Movement in America Until quite recently the term "Thrift" conveyed meagre conceptions to the average mind. There have been, it is true, individuals now and then who, because of so-called peculiar characteristics, or possessing dispositional make-up, unusual or rare, have practiced thrift. These, for the most part, however, have been looked upon as mercenary or miserly. To be thrifty was, in popular thinking, to drive a sharp bargain - to demand heavy usury. Thus, the thrifty were characterized as narrow-minded, self-centered, not always the most satisfactory community members. Society frowned upon them, and, while tolerated, they were taken into fellowship reluctantly, or not at all. Until recently, too, thrift was understood in its narrowest sense only - that of money saving. Anyone frugal in money matters was characterized as thrifty, as opposed to the wasteful or extravagant. Hence, to be thrifty implied living on the least possible, with the corresponding larger saving and investment. A close buyer, one who could drive a sharp bargain, who had foresight to invest to advantage, who managed to sell on a big margin, who spent little and saved much - such was the thrifty person. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Sheer lack of thrift has caused more financial failures than anything else. How many men there are to-day who might have become wealthy had they only known how to save money! During the course of their careers they have earned large sums, but these have slipped from their fingers from day to day. They had the natural gift of making money, just as their successful rivals, but they lacked the quality of permanent success-which is thrift.-from "Money-Making and Money-Saving"The United States in the late 1910s was a nation reeling economically from the cost of fighting World War I, a cost that was ultimately borne-according to Simon William Straus, president of the American Society for Thrift-through a prudent parsimony. Here, he entreats the nation not to forget this vital lesson of the war, and to begin a new battle against the "crime of wastefulness." No mere matter of simply saving money, thrift is, Straus explains, the strength of character to spend wisely and with a thought toward the future, toward conserving natural resources, and toward freedom from the shackles of mindless consumerism-Straus' wise and sensible philosophy positions thrift as a necessary cornerstone of morality and patriotism.As startling relevant today as it was in 1920, when Straus laid out his plan for a frugal America, this is a book to make us reconsider, as individuals and as a nation, our financial strategies and priorities.