Elizabeth Tandy Shermer
History of Indentured Students in the USA


Today we talk about the 45 million people in the USA who owe $1.7 trillion in student debt. My guest is Elizabeth Tandy Shermer, an Associate Professor of History at Loyola University Chicago.

Elizabeth shows in her new book that the student debt crisis today can be traced back to the New Deal. She details the changing political fault lines when it comes to federally funding higher education. Elizabeth Tandy Shermer’s new book is Indentured Students: How Government-Guaranteed Loans Left Generations Drowning in College Debt.

Citation: Shermer, Elizabeth, interview with Will Brehm, FreshEd, 259, podcast audio, October 25, 2021.https://freshedpodcast.com/shermer/