This past Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Obergefell v. Hodges that the Fourteenth Amendment requires a state to license a marriage between two people of the same sex and to recognize similar marriages licensed and performed out-of-state. Of course, this decision will be celebrated by marriage equality activists and supporters, like myself, and … Continue reading
Author Archives: HistPhil
A Historian in a Management-Oriented Field
Editors’ Note: With this piece by Peter C. Weber, we continue our discussion on the history of philanthropy. It is not always easy being a historian of philanthropy in a field that is an increasingly management-oriented one. As I am starting my first academic position as Director of Nonprofit Leadership Studies at Murray State University, … Continue reading
In the Summer Issue of Lapham’s Quarterly
Readers of HistPhil might be interested in the current issue of Lapham’s Quarterly. For those not familiar with the publication, it’s an offshoot of the “Readings” section of Harper’s Magazine, where Lewis Lapham reigned as the long-serving editor. Each Quarterly features a collection of readings, culled from historical sources, based around a particular theme, and this … Continue reading
OHSU Meets Knight’s $500 Million Challenge Grant: A Historical Reflection
The big news from Oregon Health and Science University is that they have met Phil Knight’s $500 million challenge grant. To celebrate, take a look at the recent article that Benjamin Soskis, a HistPhil co-editor, wrote for the Chronicle of Philanthropy on the history and contemporary significance of challenge grants. Challenge grants are “in many respects, … Continue reading
Part II: Debating the Basis of American Civil Society, Waves of Debate about Religion and Virtue
Editors’ Note: Yesterday, we published Part One of David C. Hammack‘s two-part contribution. Below is Part Two: “Debating the Basis of American Civil Society, Waves of Debate about Religion and Virtue.” Earlier posts under this general dialogue on the field of philanthropic history include: Stan Katz’s “The Clinton Foundation in Historical Perspective”; Maribel Morey’s “Increasing the Visibility of Philanthropy among … Continue reading
Waves of Historical Interest in Philanthropy and Civil Society
Editors’ Note: We continue with our discussion of the field with this two-part contribution by historian David C. Hammack. Today, we include Part One: “Waves of Historical Interest in Philanthropy and Civil Society.” Tomorrow, we will post Part Two: “Debating the Basis of American Civil Society, Waves of Debate about Religion and Virtue.” Earlier posts under this … Continue reading
Philanthropic History and a Healthy Heterodoxy
Yesterday, the Center for Effective Philanthropy’s Kevin Bolduc directed our attention to a recent article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review that he considered “ripe for historical insight.” HistPhil is never one to back away from a challenge—to say nothing of the fact that this was precisely the sort of conversation between historians, practitioners, and … Continue reading
Q&A with Historian Olivier Zunz
Editors’ Note: In our introduction to the blog, we said that the site will be structured around certain themes and that we would start off with a discussion on the state of the field. HistPhil’s Stan Katz launched this dialogue last week by asking how a historical perspective can inform our understanding of the Clinton Foundation; providing an example of how this field … Continue reading
Increasing the Visibility of Philanthropy among U.S. Historians
Editors’ Note: In “Introducing HistPhil,” we mentioned that the site will be structured around certain themes and that we would start off with a discussion on the state of the field. HistPhil co-founder Stan Katz launched this dialogue earlier this week by asking how a historical perspective can inform our understanding of the Clinton Foundation; providing an example of how this field … Continue reading
Upcoming SHAFR Meeting
Editors’ Note: Several sessions of interest to readers will take place at the upcoming meeting of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR) next week in DC. Below, we are including just a few that seemed particularly relevant to historians of philanthropy. SHAFR, 2015 Annual Meeting (Thurs., June 25- Sat., June 27) Thursday, June 25, 11:45am-1:30pm Panel 4: … Continue reading
In the June Issues of the AHR and NVSQ
(Editors’ Note: In “Introducing HistPhil,” we said that we will keep track of events, articles, and books of interest to the field. This is our first blog post in that vein.) In the current issue of The American Historical Review, William I. Hitchcock reviews Bruno Cabanes’s The Great War and the Origins of Humanitarianism, 1918-1924 (NYC: Cambridge University … Continue reading
Introducing HistPhil: A New Blog on the History of Philanthropy
Modern philanthropy has long had an ambivalent relationship with its own history. On the one hand, every decade or so has brought tidings of a New Philanthropy, or sometimes even of a New, New Philanthropy, a designation that promotes a virtuous discontinuity with the giving that had marked the benighted old days. Centuries ago, such … Continue reading
The Clinton Foundation in Historical Perspective
My friend and long-time collaborator in studying the history of the philanthropic foundation, Barry Karl, cautioned me that “historians cannot predict the future, they are not even very good at predicting the past.” Wise words, and I have tried to keep them in mind for the forty years in which I have been thinking about … Continue reading
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