In a Wall Street Journal article on Saturday, August 1, 2026, a series of book reviews by David Skeel was published, chronicling some of the biggest bankruptcy battles in the past 200 years ranging from business to government to consumer bankruptcies.
Bankruptcy is often thought of as a last resort — a financial dead end. But its history tells a far richer story, one of robber barons and city governments, sovereign nations and struggling casinos, and everyday people caught in the machinery of debt. A recent roundup of books on the subject traces just how far bankruptcy’s reach extends: from Gilded Age tycoons who used it to protect their empires, to a near-bankrupt New York City in the 1970s, to Greece’s sovereign debt crisis, to the modern consumer swept up by credit cards and payday loans. Along the way, these books raise a deeper question worth sitting with: is our current bankruptcy system more forgiving than the debt-forgiveness laws of the Old Testament, or less? Below is a look at a few of the standout titles — and what they reveal about how bankruptcy shapes lives, cities, and economies alike.
The Robber Barons (1934) by Matthew Josephon depicts the way powerful American businessmen used “[e]quity receivership, a bankruptcy-like proceeding used to reorganize troubled companies,” to maintain power, prior to the enactment of federal bankruptcy law.
In a biography of New York’s former governor Hugh Carey, The Man Who Saved New York (2010) by Seymour P. Lachman and Robert Polner, the financial collapse of New York City was narrowly avoided by a $2.3 billion federal loan.
George Papaconstantinou, Greece’s finance minister from 2009 to 2011, writes in Game Over (2016) about how he negotiated the first of Greece’s three bailouts with the European Union, in exchange for “spending cuts and austerity measures.”
Ceasars Palace Coup (2021) by Max Frumes and Sujeet Indap tells the story of Caesars Entertainment casino empire’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy, after it almost defaulted on over $25 billion in debt. Creditors viciously fought in Bankruptcy Court, where over $5 billion in creditors’ fraud was uncovered.
In Bankrupt in America (2020), Mary Eschelback Hansen and Bradley A. Hansen describe the history of American bankruptcy law. The first federal bankruptcy law, enacted in 1898, was intended for businesses. However, consumers soon realized bankruptcy could help them as well. It was not until the 1920s that the number of individual bankruptcies outweighed the number of business bankruptcies for the first time. Today, consumer bankruptcies have become increasingly popular.
The reason for the rise in consumer bankruptcy is discussed in Robertson B. Cohen’s article Bankruptcy and the Bible. In this article, Cohen notes many similarities between the modern Bankruptcy Code, and bankruptcy in the Old Testament, in which lenders were commanded to forgive all debts every seven years.
“The major difference between the Old Testament lending and today’s methods is that today the release from debt is not automatic and there are no laws to prevent the charging of interest. The result is that massive profits can be generated by the use of eighteen and twenty percent interest rates in consumer credit transactions. These profits override the risk of bankruptcy and those who pay back their loans at these interest rates are in effect not only paying back their own loans but also the loans of the bankrupt borrowers as well—and a large profit to the usurious lenders.”
Cohen also attributes the rise in consumer debt to the wide availability of debt arrangements in the modern day such as credit cards, payday loans, and property mortgages, among many others.
Hansen and Hansen in Bankrupt in America similarly note that “[d]epartment-store credit accounts and the disappearance of legal restrictions on interest rates,” led to an explosion in credit-card debt and insolvency. “Today individuals vastly outnumber businesses in bankruptcy, by a ratio of 22 to 1.”
By: Law Clerk, Elisa Reece
How Adams Law Can Help
Bankruptcy has always been about more than numbers on a balance sheet — it’s about giving people and businesses a real chance to move forward. Whether the cause is a job loss, unexpected illness, divorce, or debt that’s simply outpaced the ability to keep up, Adams Law has been guiding Denver-area individuals and small business owners toward a fresh start since 2010. Our attorneys help clients understand every option available, from debt negotiation and credit rehabilitation to stopping harassing creditors, foreclosure, and wage garnishment.
If you’re weighing whether bankruptcy might be right for you, there’s no need to navigate it alone — and no shame in exploring your options. We offer a free 30-minute consultation to talk through your situation and the best path forward. Call Adams Law today at (720) 233-7900, or reach out through our website, to get started.