Debt’s Grip: Risk and Consumer Bankruptcy

Debt’s Grip tells the story of financial struggle in the United States. Drawing on original data from the Consumer Bankruptcy Project, a landmark long-term study, the authors use the words of bankruptcy filers themselves to shed light on their battles to keep their homes and their cars, pay for healthcare and higher education, care for their children, find adequate employment, retire, negotiate with debt collectors, and confront discrimination in lending. Laying bare the consequences of risk privatization, this book makes a powerful case for why the United States must confront the structural inequities that cause so many--especially Black families, women, and the elderly--to struggle in today’s economy.

Pamela Foohey is the Allen Post Professor of Law at the University of Georgia. Robert M. Lawless is the Max L. Rowe Professor of Law at the University of Illinois. Deborah Thorne is Professor of Sociology at the University of Idaho.