America Has Always Been a 'Credit Nation'

On this episode: a conversation with Claire Priest. Claire is a historian and Professor at Yale Law School, and author of the book Credit Nation: Property Laws and Institutions in Early America. In it, she explains how even before the United States became a country, laws prioritizing access to credit set colonial America apart from the rest of the world. This reality didn’t just shape colonial economies -- it was also a key factor in the explosive growth of American capitalism in the nineteenth-century.This episode was guest-hosted by Rhodes Center Fellow Ann Daly. She's a historian, Assistant Professor of History at Mississippi State University, and an expert on the economics of the American colonies. Watch Claire Priest's talk at the Rhodes Center. Learn more about the Watson Institute’s other podcasts.