Sean O'Connell first monograph - The car in British society: class, gender and motoring (Manchester University Press, 1998) was part of the shift in British social and cultural history away from the study of production towards the analysis of consumption and consumers. His more recent projects have continued this interest. Amongst topics he has analyzed have been the history of men's consumer magazines, and the history of `joyriding.' He has published his work in journals such as Economic History Review, Twentieth Century British History, and the British Journal of Criminology. His research has been supported by grants from the ESRC, the Leverhulme Trust, and the AHRC. His interest in the issue of consumer credit began with his co-authorship (with Dilwyn Porter and Richard Coopey) of Mail order retailing in Britain: a business and social history (Oxford University Press, 2005) and culminates with this monograph on working class experiences of consumer credit since 1880.

[A] careful and thorough study of the role of credit in working-class communities in Britain from the late nineteenth century to the present... [an] informative study.

• Introduction. On easy terms? Borrowing and lending in the working class community ; 1. Credit on the doorstep: the tallymen ; 2. The rise of the Provident system: check trading ; 3. Retail capitalism in the parlour: mail order catalogues ; 4. The moneylender unmasked ; 5. Doorstep moneylending since the 1950s ; 6. Formal and informal co-operative credit ; 7. Renewed hope for mutuality: credit unions ; Conclusion. Easy terms remain elusive

Sean O'Connell first monograph - The car in British society: class, gender and motoring (Manchester University Press, 1998) was part of the shift in British social and cultural history away from the study of production towards the analysis of consumption and consumers. His more recent projects have continued this interest. Amongst topics he has analyzed have been the history of men's consumer magazines, and the history of `joyriding.' He has published his work in journals such as Economic History Review, Twentieth Century British History, and the British Journal of Criminology. His research has been supported by grants from the ESRC, the Leverhulme Trust, and the AHRC. His interest in the issue of consumer credit began with his co-authorship (with Dilwyn Porter and Richard Coopey) of Mail order retailing in Britain: a business and social history (Oxford University Press, 2005) and culminates with this monograph on working class experiences of consumer credit since 1880.

[A] careful and thorough study of the role of credit in working-class communities in Britain from the late nineteenth century to the present... [an] informative study.

• Introduction. On easy terms? Borrowing and lending in the working class community ; 1. Credit on the doorstep: the tallymen ; 2. The rise of the Provident system: check trading ; 3. Retail capitalism in the parlour: mail order catalogues ; 4. The moneylender unmasked ; 5. Doorstep moneylending since the 1950s ; 6. Formal and informal co-operative credit ; 7. Renewed hope for mutuality: credit unions ; Conclusion. Easy terms remain elusive