Bread Winner by Emma Griffin

Bread Winner by Emma Griffin ISBN-13: 9780300230062 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Yale University Press Released: June 9th 2020

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description from Goodreads:
The overlooked story of how ordinary women and their husbands managed financially in the Victorian era – and why so many struggled despite increasing national prosperity

Nineteenth century Britain saw remarkable economic growth and a rise in real wages. But not everyone shared in the nation’s wealth. Unable to earn a sufficient income themselves, working-class women were reliant on the ‘breadwinner wage’ of their husbands. When income failed, or was denied or squandered by errant men, families could be plunged into desperate poverty from which there was no escape.

Emma Griffin unlocks the homes of Victorian England to examine the lives – and finances – of the people who lived there. Drawing on over 600 working-class autobiographies, including more than 200 written by women, Bread Winner changes our understanding of daily life in Victorian Britain.


My Review:
Bread Winner is a detailed look at how the increasing male wages of the Victorian period didn't necessarily mean that the women and children in British working-class families also experienced more financial security. The author looked at autobiographies of both men and women during the period of the 1830s up to 1914, and she sometimes compared this to information gleaned from autobiographies written before the 1830s. She talked about different aspects of finances and life, summarizing information gleaned from these autobiographies and including a few quotes to give an idea of what specifically was said. She covered information about when women took paid work and what their wages were able to buy versus when men took paid work and their wage rates. She also talked about the importance of the unpaid work that women did at home, and how women were deliberately forced to depend on men's wages for financial security due to the unequal wage rates.

The author also talked about the various reasons for the male wages to be insufficient to support the family and statistical rates of these reasons occurring in the autobiographies. These ranged from the choice of the men to not share their full wages to injury or inconsistent work. She talked about how women worked out of the home or with her husband to supplement his wages or what they did to support the family when the husband was injured or abandoned them. She explored how working men were treated as special with increased respect and better food, and how children sometimes had to find other ways to get food when there wasn't enough money to feed everyone. She ended by talking about how children viewed their mother and their father in terms of how they fulfilled their roles more than with emotional words like "love." Overall, this is not an entertaining read, but it's very informative. I'd recommend it to anyone interested in how male/female roles and wages changed in England from the 1800s to the 1900s.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: Read an excerpt using Google Preview.

Ladies of the Ticker by George Robb

Ladies of the Ticker: Women and Wall Street from the Gilded Age to the Great Depression by George Robb ISBN-13: 9780252082719 Paperback: 280 pages Publisher: University of Illinois Press Released: Aug. 15, 2017

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Long overlooked in histories of finance, women played an essential role in areas such as banking and the stock market during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Yet their presence sparked ongoing controversy. Hetty Green's golden touch brought her millions, but she outraged critics with her rejection of domesticity. Progressives like Victoria Woodhull, meanwhile, saw financial acumen as more important for women than the vote.

George Robb's pioneering study sheds a light on the financial methods, accomplishments, and careers of three generations of women. Plumbing sources from stock brokers' ledgers to media coverage, Robb reveals the many ways women invested their capital while exploring their differing sources of information, approaches to finance, interactions with markets, and levels of expertise.

He also rediscovers the forgotten women bankers, brokers, and speculators who blazed new trails--and sparked public outcries over women's unsuitability for the predatory rough-and-tumble of market capitalism. Entertaining and vivid with details, Ladies of the Ticker sheds light on the trailblazers who transformed Wall Street into a place for women's work.


My Review:
Ladies of the Ticker is a history of women involved in the American stock market from around the 1880s to 1920s. The author started by describing the laws (in England and America) that made it difficult for women to control and invest their own money and the changes that came about in the late 1800s that allowed more women to invest in stocks and bonds.

The rest of the book focused "the Gilded Age to the Great Depression." He started by describing how novels, magazines, financial manuals, and similar sources portrayed the stock market and women who invested in bonds or stocks. He then looked at records from two stock brokers showing what women actually invested their money in, their investment habits, and how they acted in their correspondence with the stock broker. He acknowledged that women didn't all behave the same way, yet there were certain general trends. He contrasted women's investment behavior to the records of men's investments and to how popular culture portrayed women investors.

The author also talked about fraud (involving banks, stocks, and bonds) that was directed at women or that was done by women. He looked at the women's rights movement and how they promoted financial education and empowerment for women. He talked about early women brokers, capitalists, and financiers. Some parts read like biographies. We're told about several women who tried to set up as a stock brokers, what the press and such said about the woman, what she said about her past, and what we know about what happened to her. We also learned details about several women who carried out sensational financial frauds.

This book had an academic tone. As in, I felt like the topic had been carefully researched and a balanced view presented. As a woman who is interested in this time period and who invests in stocks, I found it very interesting. Overall, I'd recommend this book.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.

More Than Good Intentions by Dean Karlan and Jacob Appel

More Than Good Intentions by Dean Karlan and Jacob Appel ISBN-13: 9780525951896 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Dutton Adult Released: April 14, 2011

Source: Review copy from the publisher provided as an eBook through NetGalley.

Book Description from Goodreads:
A leading economist and researcher report from the front lines of a revolution in solving the world's most persistent problem.

When it comes to global poverty, people are passionate and polarized. At one extreme: We just need to invest more resources. At the other: We've thrown billions down a sinkhole over the last fifty years and accomplished almost nothing.

Dean Karlan and Jacob Appel present an entirely new approach that blazes an optimistic and realistic trail between these two extremes.

In this pioneering book Karlan and Appel combine behavioral economics with worldwide field research. They take readers with them into villages across Africa, India, South America, and the Philippines, where economic theory collides with real life. They show how small changes in banking, insurance, health care, and other development initiatives that take into account human irrationality can drastically improve the well-being of poor people everywhere.

We in the developed world have found ways to make our own lives profoundly better. We use new tools to spend smarter, save more, eat better, and lead lives more like the ones we imagine. These tools can do the same for the impoverished. Karlan and Appel's research, and those of some close colleagues, show exactly how.

In America alone, individual donors contribute over two hundred billion to charity annually, three times as much as corporations, foundations, and bequests combined. This book provides a new way to understand what really works to reduce poverty; in so doing, it reveals how to better invest those billions and begin transforming the well-being of the world.


My Review:
More Than Good Intentions focused on what programs (or parts of programs) actually achieved their objective of helping the poor. The authors talked about the studies they've done on this and explain their findings about what works, what doesn't, and how various programs might be improved. The authors acknowledge that people don't always act in their long-term best interest, so we need to understand why the poor act in certain ways (including overlooked problems they face), modify programs to take that into account, and test those programs to see if they're working.

The book was easy to read and very engaging. It contained interesting stories of real people that were impacted by these programs. I'd highly recommend this book to those who donate money to organizations that help the poor and to the people who run these programs.

The topics the authors covered were their studies on how to "sell" a program to poor people (as in, get them to use it), various types of microfinance programs (individual, group, along with basic business training, along with specific business advice, etc.), microsavings programs, agricultural programs, educational programs, and health programs (including reproductive health). The last chapter listed the 7 programs that they discussed that they're the most excited about.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt from Chapter One, from pages 3-4, 5
... Sometimes, even when we have all the good intentions in the world, we don't find the most effective or most efficient way to act on them. This is true whether we want to save fish, make microloans, distribute antimalarial bed-nets, or deliver deworming pills. The question is: How can we get beyond our good intentions and to the best solutions?

The only real consensus view on the issue is about the gravity of the problem. Three billion people, about half the world, live on $2.50 per day. (To be clear, that's $2.50 adjusted for the cost of living--so think of it as living on the amount of actual goods that you could buy for $2.50 per day in the United States.) In the public dialogue about aid and development--that vast complex of people, organizations, and programs that seek to alleviate poverty around the world--there are two main competing explainations for why poverty persists on such a massive scale. One camp maintains that we simply haven't spent enough on aid programs and need to massively ramp up our level of engagement. They point out that the world's wealthist nations dedicate on average less than one percent of their money to poverty reduction. In their view, it just doesn't add up. We could get serious about ending poverty, they say, but we haven't even given our existing programs a fair chance. The first thing we have to do is give more. A lot more.

The other camp tells a starkly different story: Aid as it exists today doesn't work, and simply throwing money at the problem is futile. They point out that $2.3 trillion has been spent by the world's wealthiest nations on poverty reduction over the past fifty years and ask: What have we accomplished with all that money? With poverty and privations still afflicting half the globe, can we really claim to be on the right track? No, they say, we need a fresh start. The aid and development community as it exists today is flabby, uncoordinated, and accountable to nobody in particular. It's bound to fail. They argue that we need to pull away resources from overgrown, cumbersome international organizations like the United Nations, wipe the slate clean, and focus instead on small, agile, homegrown programs.

....Jake and I propose that there actually is a way forward....Sometimes aid works, and sometimes it does not....The critical question, then, is which aid works. The debate has been in the sky, but the answers are on the ground. Instead of getting hung up in the extremes, let's zero in on the details. Let's look at a specific challenge or problem that poor people face, try to understand what they're up against, propose a potential solution, and then test to find out whether it works. If that solution works--and if we can demonstrate that it works consistantly--then let's scale it up so it can work for more people. If it doesn't work, let's make changes or try something new.

Bankruptcy of Our Nation by Jerry Robinson

Bankruptcy of Our Nation: 12 Key Strategies for Protecting Your Finances in These Uncertain Times by Jerry Robinson ISBN-13: 9780892216932 Trade Paperback: 272 pages Publisher: New Leaf Press Released: March 18, 2009

Source: Review copy from the publisher.

Book Description from Back Cover:
Surrounded by a host of political and social problems, America stands at the crossroads of a devastating economic crisis - the size and scope of which demands immediate action, while instability and debt loom over the future.

• America is the greatest debtor nation in history.
• The value of the dollar is at tremendous risk.
• Inflation is about to become a huge reality.

Crippled by personal debt, local and state governments facing revenue losses, and the federal government struggling to bail out segments of the economy, many Americans are suddenly afraid and uncertain of what the future may bring. Many worry if the United States can even recover from this crisis. Will you and your family financially survive and even thrive during this turbulent time?

Bankruptcy of Our Nation gives you vital insight, historical and future perspective, revealing how America got into this mess, and how you can make informed decisions to weather this economic crisis. Don't rely on the government to secure your future - empower yourself with sound economic strategies, solutions, and godly principles today!


My Review:
Bankruptcy of Our Nation is about how greed and poor government policy has created an inevitable, coming financial crisis for the American government that will affect everyone in America. There's a lot of good, important information in this book, especially in the first half. There's no getting around that the "coming crisis" is real. The question is only how severe it will be and when it will occur. Therefore, I was disappointed that the "12 key strategies for protecting your finances" made up only one slim chapter.

The book was a quick, easy read. Some of the information was repeated, but those unfamiliar with these concepts might appreciate the repetition. Some of his speculation about the future is already out of date, but that doesn't significantly affect the overall value of the book.

However, I questioned the wisdom of a few of his "surviving" strategies, like putting money into (among other suggestions) fine art. If people can't afford food, why would they place any monetary exchange value on art? And if all the world's currency systems are potentially as unstable as ours, is it really wise to invest a full third of your money in foreign currency?

I also felt like he got a little sidetracked in the chapters about the Federal Reserve. I felt like he was leaving some information out, that some of his statements there were misleading, and I didn't accept some of his conclusions. For example, on page 173, he said, "Money is debt. And debt is money. The concept that all money in our modern society is actually debt may be foreign to you." Okay, so in certain circumstances, money is printed in order to meet the debt need. However, money has buying power and the ability to pay off ("cancel") debt, so it can't be debt.

I was also amazed that he managed to potentially offend just about every type of reader. He blamed both political parties for the problem (most of which he backed up with facts). The last 47 pages suddenly contained a lot of references to Christianity (which will turn off non-Christians), but then he makes statements that most Christians won't agree with. Personally, I didn't like how he basically said that rich Americans and banks were deliberately trying to financially ruin the helpless "working poor and middle class." I know rich people who have honestly earned their wealth through hard work and wise use of their money and poor people who have lost theirs through foolish use of their money. I don't think he's making a fair generalization, and I think that everyone ought to look to how they've contributed to the problem instead of looking for someone to blame.

Overall, this book has some very important information, but I question some of its accuracy so you might want to research it more on your own. Or you can watch this free, approximately 80 minute long PowerPoint presentation video that covered many of the same points about why they believe an economic crisis is going to occur soon. One big difference, though, is that some of solutions at the end of the video appeal to people's greed whereas the author of the book blames greed for getting everyone into this mess.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt from pages 73-75, 92
As of this writing, the U.S. national debt stands at just under $9.4 trillion and is rising by the billions daily. And these record debt levels are going up every second...because the miracle of compounding interest is working against us. ...America is the largest debtor nation the world has ever seen. America is clearly spending more than it can ever pay for.

...let me simplify the gravity of this situation by examining the U.S. government's annual budget. In fiscal year 2006, the U.S. government spent $406 billion of their tax receipts (translation: your tax dollars) on interest payments to the holders of the national debt. That $406 billion is just the interest on our skyrocketing debt!

To help you understand just how much money $406 billion is, let's compare this amount to other important expenditures by the federal government. Consider the items from the Federal Budget from Fiscal Year 2006....

• The entire annual budget for the Department of Labor in 2006: $11.5 billion
• The entire annual budget for the NASA Space Program in 2006: $16.5 billion
• The entire annual budget for the Department of Energy in 2006: $23.4 billion
• The entire annual budget for the Department of Homeland Security in 2006: $34.2 billion
• The entire annual budget for the Department of Transportation in 2006: $57.5 billion
• The entire annual budget for the Department of Education in 2006: $56 billion
• The entire annual budget for the Department of Health and Human Services in 2006: $67.2 billion

....Every 13 hours your government spends over $600 million on INTEREST on the national debt.

Now suppose that the federal government collectively decided one day to beginning paying off the $59 trillion it owes [which includes it's future social security, medicare, and medicaid commitments] at [the] rate of $1.00 per second. Assuming that this $59 trillion was not compounding with interest daily (which it is, by the billions), how long would it take our government to pay off $59 trillion dollars...? 1,888,000 years. [One million, eight hundred eighty-eight thousand years.]

Read the first 35 pages.

Consumption & Production by Prakash L. Dheeriya

Finance for Kidz, Volume 10: Consumption & Production by Prakash L. Dheeriya, Ph. D. Hardback: 24 pages Publisher: Fintelligence Publishing First Released: 2010

Source: The book was pitched by PR by the Book, and a free review copy was provided.

Book Description (my take):
Zulia goes on a school field trip to a local farm. Her teacher uses it to explain the financial concepts of production and consumption. The terms learned: producers, consumers, product, goods, services, capital resource, natural resource, human resource.


Review:
I'm all for teaching kids "big" concepts, so I was interested when I heard about this 20-volume series for teaching 5- to 9-year-olds the principles of finance.

However, I was disappointed with the book. The actual story text is only 6.5 pages long (about 650 words) with two additional worksheet pages to practice correctly identifying producers and consumers. The author stressed that the parents needed to come up with examples of their own to make sure the kids really understood the points. So I'm wondering why he didn't give more examples, or at least why he didn't combine 5 volumes of the Finance for Kidz series into one to make a standard-sized children's book worth the $20 price.

I'm a hobby farmer and studied commercial animal farming (animal science) in college. The author didn't accurately describe commercial farming. (He had chickens being hand-fed grain while wandering free in the farmyard with a mix of other farm animals. He also had one farm commercially raising cows, pigs, chickens, goats, and huge fields of some crop.) I don't think it's a good thing to misinform kids about one thing while teaching them another.

The text did a fairly good job at demonstrating the financial terms covered, though each term was only briefly covered and sometimes not clearly defined.

The illustrations were fairly accurate and pictured a commercial farm and the characters. Overall, I felt like the book left much of the work up to the parents, anyway, so the parents might as well come up with their own examples to begin with and save the money they'd spend on this book.