Full Description
This collection sheds light on the history of charity and philanthropy in the United States since the Civil War. It explores the ways in which charities, local associations, religious organisations and philanthropic foundations have engaged and interacted with American politics, society and relations with the world.
Beginning in the 19th-century, the first chapters address the domestic, religious and transatlantic dimensions of philanthropy during a period of conflict and upheaval. The second section showcase four domestic case studies, exploring debates about the purpose of 'good works', including charity in the Ku Klux Klan and philanthropic African-American business women. The last chapters explore how philanthropy sought to shape US foreign policy during the interwar period, and assess the complex relationship between art, culture and government policy during the Cold War.
In highlighting the significant role that charitable works have played in American politics and society, and the ways in which the concept of philanthropy has evolved since the mid-19th century, this collection demonstrates their value as a lens through which to view American history.
Contents
List of Illustrations
List of Contributors
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part I: Religion and Philanthropy
Heaping Coals of Fire on the Enemy's Head: the Political Uses of Christian Benevolence in the Civil War
Rachel Williams
"Ministry of Helpfulness": Near East Relief and Protestant Philanthropic Secularism, 1915-1930
Scott P. Libson
Philanthropy as Exchange: American Missionaries and the International Religious Liberty Debate
Emma Long
Part II: Cultural Networks
Nineteenth-Century Abolition and the Unquiet Library: Transatlantic Print Culture and the Making of the "Celebrated Philanthropist", Anthony Benezet
Bridget Bennett
Towards a Cultural Counter-Establishment: Huntington Hartford and his Eponymous Foundation, 1948-1965
Karen Patricia Heath
The Ford Foundation's Cultural Cold War in Berlin
Amanda Niedfeldt
Part III: Diplomacy and International Development
Women's Educational Philanthropy and Civil-Society Diplomacy: Opposing US Legislation Prohibiting Japanese Immigration While Fundraising for a Tokyo Women's College, 1900-1929
Linda L. Johnson
Cultivating "Good Will" Through Rural Welfare: The Near East Foundation in Iran, 1943-1951
Ben Offiler
From Books to Land Rovers: The Informal, Small Philanthropy of the AFL-CIO and the ICFTU in Africa During the Early Cold War
Kevin E. Grimm
Part IV: Challenging Philanthropy
Identifying a Menace to the National Welfare: The Final Report of the United States Commission on Industrial Relation and the Progressive Era Critique of Philanthropic Foundations
Margaret Nettesheim Hoffmann
Klanishness and American Fraternalism: Examining Charity and Philanthropy in the Second Ku Klux Klan
Miguel Hernandez
Bibliography
Index
