“Emily Zackin and Chloe Thurston have written an essential book on the history of debt relief in the United States. This is a must-read for anyone interested in American political economy, political development, and constitutional history.”

Ganesh Sitaraman | author of "The Crisis of the Middle Class Constitution"

“Zackin and Thurston have given us a brilliant, sweeping account of the politics of debt in the United States. Situating debt relief in the context of racialized social policy, they illuminate how the interplay of economic context, organized interests, and constitutional interpretation shaped American bankruptcy laws over the past century and a half. This book is essential reading.”

Kathleen Thelen | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

"The Political Development of American Debt Relief is a gem of a book—deeply researched, elegantly written, and a truly compelling account of the entire trajectory of the unique political economy of consumer debt relief in the United States. Zackin and Thurston tell the story of how debt-relief politics emerged in the nineteenth century and receded in the twentieth before beginning to re-emerge today. Along the way, they produce a model for future scholars of how to do this kind of work: how to thread complex legal and constitutional questions together with the dynamics of class, race, political mobilization, lobbying, and political power."

Joseph Fishkin | coauthor of "The Anti-Oligarchy Constitution"