Investing in Life

Sharon Ann Murphy is an associate professor of history at Providence College.

• Series Editor's ForewordAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: New Risks in a Changing WorldPart I: The Creation of an Industry1. Understanding Mortality in Antebellum America: The Search for a Stable Business Model2. Selecting Risks in an Anonymous World: The Development of the Agency System3. Lying, Cheating, and Stealing versus The Court of Public Opinion: Preventing Moral Hazard and Insurance Fraud4. The Public Interest in a Private Industry: Life Insurance and the Regulatory-Promotional StatePart II: Reaching Out to the Middle Class5. Protecting Women and Children "in the hour of their distress": Targeting the Fears of an Emerging Middle Class6. Targeting the Aspirations of an Emerging Middle Class: The Triumph of Mutual Life Insurance Companies7. Securing Human Property: Slavery, Industrialization, and Urbanization in the Upper South8. Acting "in defiance of Providence"? The Public Perception of Life InsurancePart III: Cooperation, Competition, and the Quest for Stability9. Seeking Stability in an Increasingly Competitive Industry: The Creation of the American Life Underwriters' Convention10. Insuring Soldiers, Insuring Civilians: The Civil War as a Watershed for the Life Insurance Industry11. The Perils of Success during the Postbellum YearsConclusion: "Have you provided for your Family an Insuranceon your Life?"AppendixNotesEssay on SourcesIndex

Investing in Life is a well-written, well-argued book that makes a number of important contributions to the history of business and capitalism in antebellum America. -- Sean H. Vanatta Common-Place 2011 An intriguing, instructive history of the establishment and development of the life insurance industry that reveals a good deal about changing social and commercial conditions in antebellum America... Highly recommended. Choice 2011