FRANKLIN’S THRIFT: THE HISTORY OF A LOST AMERICAN VIRTUE

Book ID/图书代码： 12686009B33995

English Summary/英文概要： 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.

Chinese Summary/中文概要： 现今，美国人已与节俭之风渐行渐远 -- 人们将节约定性为，对资源的贪婪囤积、以及对施舍的无情拒绝。更有甚者，早已将节俭抛于脑后。本书试图扭转这样的局面，还大众一段美国民族的节俭史。
作者追溯了，从十八世纪开始，节俭的观念如何悄然成风，并逐渐成为美国迈向经济自由及物质富足的强大推动力。本杰明·富兰克林赋予了节俭生命，并大力倡导节约，他认为，真正的节俭体现在高效的工作，合理的消费，适当的积蓄以及慷慨的给予之上。富兰克林所提出的节俭，深深扎根于美国民众的观念之中，并成为平头百姓追求成功创造财富的重要基石。到了十九世纪和二十世纪，节俭之风成功深入到了新的领域之中，它推动了互助储蓄银行和信用合作社，以及联邦储蓄债券的创立，并引导全国上下于两次世界大战期间进行资源的保护。
对于历史学家，美国文物及传统文化保护人士，以及致力于应对现今社会经济内种种弊病的人士而言，书中所包含的众多事例和建议都会另他们获益良多。(WHL)

Awards/获奖情况：

About the Author/作者介绍： David Blankenhorn is founder and president of the Institute for American Values, a nonpartisan organization devoted to strengthening families and civil society in the U.S. and the world. For the past three years, he has led an initiative at the institute to study thrift. A 1998 profile in the New York Times described Blankenhorn as a "consensus builder for a moral base in society." He lives in New York City with his wife, Raina, their son, Raymond, and their two daughters, Sophia and Alexandra.
Sorcha Brophy-Warren is a doctoral student in sociology at Yale University. Previously she was an affiliate scholar at the Institute for American Values where she researched thrift and wrote a literature review of business ethics curricula.
Barbara Dafoe Whitehead is codirector of Rutger’s University’s National Marriage Project and an award winning journalist. Her books include Why There Are No Good Men Left: The Romantic Plight of the New Single Woman and The Divorce Culture.
David Blankenhorn，美国价值协会创立人兼主席(the Institute for American Values)。于过去的三年间，他发起并倡导人们学习节俭之风。纽约时报曾评价 Blankenhorn "社会道德基石的倡导人"。Blankenhorn现与家人定居于纽约。
Sorcha Brophy-Warren，耶鲁大学社会学博士生。

Format:电子手稿

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Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文：AVAILABLE

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