Tolerance for Risk

In Uncovered, Katherine Hempstead explores the history of the insurance business and its regulation in the United States from the 1870s through the twentieth century. Tracing the history of the industry from the early days of life, fire, and casualty insurance to the development of state regulation in the late nineteenth century, Hempstead highlights the major role states play in insurance regulation that has made it harder to solve important problems and the crucial social role that insurance has always played in American politics.