"One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 1999" Lendol Calder is Assistant Professor of History at Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois. Once there was a golden age of American thrift, when citizens lived sensibly within their means and worked hard to stay out of debt. The growing availability of credit in this century, however, has brought those days to an end--undermining traditional moral virtues such as prudence, diligence, and the...