The Past Speaks

I recently discovered a podcast  in which historian Sharon Ann Murphy discusses her new book on the development of the life insurance industry in the United States before the Civil War.  Investing in Life: Insurance in Antebellum America (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010; paperback, 2013) describes ” the creation and expansion of the American life insurance industry from its early origins in the 1810s through the 1860s and examines how its growth paralleled and influenced the emergence of the middle class.” The book deals with issues such as gender, slavery, and the rise of statistical thinking.