Thrift and Thriving in America: Capitalism and Moral Order from the Puritans to the PresentThrift is a powerful and evolving moral ideal, disposition, and practice that has indelibly marked the character of American life since its earliest days. Its surprisingly multifaceted character opens a number of expansive vistas for analysis, not only in the American past, but also in its present. Thrift remains, if perhaps in unexpected and counter intuitive ways, intensely relevant to the complex issues of contemporary moral and economic life.