This book explores the forms of credit which have historically been associated with the British working class. Taylor seeks to assess the effect of credit on working class communities, and relates this to the debate about community. This work is the first comprehensive examination of the history of these forms of credit to make comparisons between the periods before and after 1945. Based on extensive archival research and oral history interviews, this book combines lively individual accounts with theoretical arguments.

Introduction Credit, Kinship and Community: The Impact of Credit upon Working Class Social Networks 'Taking an Interest in Your Neighbours, or Just Taking an Interest from Your Neighbours? Illegal Moneylending and the Working Class 'The Changing Fortunes of a Petit Bourgeois Chameleon': The Relationship between Small Shopkeepers and Working Class Communities 'Jut Like One of the Family': The Role of the Agent and the Established Firm within Working Class Credit before 1945 'Still One of the Family': The Role of the Agent and the Established Firm within Working Class Credit after 1945 Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

AVRAM TAYLOR is Lecturer in History at the University of Northumbria at Newcastle.