Editors’ Note: Continuing the site’s forum on philanthropy & education, Michael Limberg presents some of his ongoing dissertation research on early twentieth century U.S. development in the Near East. By 1920, field workers and administrators of the New York-based humanitarian agency Near East Relief realized they had a problem: they had been extremely successful, perhaps too successful, … Continue reading
Category Archives: New Works in the Field
The Economics of Funding Undergraduate Education in the United States
Editors’ Note: With this contribution, Thomas Adam continues the site’s philanthropy & education forum. Rising tuition fees and a lack of scholarship support for an increasing number of college students forces more and more students to finance their university education through student loans. According to the Institute for College Access and Success, in the seven … Continue reading
On Fortune, Linsey McGoey Compares Past & Present Philanthropy
Today, Fortune published a piece by sociologist Linsey McGoey, “Do today’s philanthropists hurt more than they help?” The author applies the history of philanthropy in furthering her argument on the contemporary state of philanthropic giving in the United States, so we are bringing the piece to readers’ attention. In her indictment of contemporary philanthropic practices, McGoey specifically draws comparisons … Continue reading
Foundations and Education Reform in the Jim Crow South
Editors’ Note: Joan Malczewski continues the site’s philanthropy & education forum. William C. Chance established the Parmele Industrial Institute in Martin County, North Carolina, in 1910. Chance was an experienced educator with great ambitions, but it was difficult in the Jim Crow South to sustain an independent black school. Four years later, when his house was … Continue reading
Do Old and New K-12 Education Philanthropy Differ?
Editors’ Note: Jeffrey W. Snyder continues the site’s philanthropy & education forum. Much of the emerging research on philanthropic involvement in K-12 education focuses on the “new” breed of extremely prominent funders like the Gates, Walton, and Broad foundations. These studies are undoubtedly important, and show how this newly emergent group has very defined preferences … Continue reading
Lessons from Mark Zuckerberg’s Grant for Educational Reform in Newark
Editors’ Note: As part of the ongoing forum on philanthropy & education, author of Follow the Money: How Foundation Dollars Change Public Schools Sarah Reckhow discusses Dale Russakoff’s recently-published book, The Prize: Who’s in Charge of America’s Schools? In 2010, Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a $100 million grant for educational reform in Newark on The Oprah Winfrey … Continue reading
Do Foundations Co-opt Civil Rights Organizations?
Editors’ Note: With the below post, Megan Ming Francis continues HistPhil’s philanthropy & inequality forum. In the coming weeks, we’ll be moving on to our next forum on philanthropy & education. Please reach us if you’d like to contribute to either discussion. In 2015, protection of black bodies from state sanctioned violence remains an unmet challenge … Continue reading
Responding to Leah Gordon’s FROM POWER TO PREJUDICE (2015)
Editors’ Note: This spring, we asked Daniel Geary to review the second chapter of Leah Gordon’s recently-published book, From Power to Prejudice: The Rise of Racial Individualism in Midcentury America (U. of Chicago Press, 2015). Titled “‘Data and Not Trouble’: The Rockefeller Foundation and the Social Science of Race Relations,” this second chapter places particular attention on the history of the … Continue reading
By Focusing on the Individual, Foundations Have Missed the Mark on Racism
Editors’ Note: The following post by Leah Gordon continues the site’s ongoing discussion on philanthropy & inequality. Here, Gordon presents some of the key arguments in her recently-published book, From Power to Prejudice: The Rise of Racial Individualism in Midcentury America (U. of Chicago Press, 2015). In a subsequent post, Daniel Geary reviews the second chapter … Continue reading
The 19th Cent: When Humanitarianism Meant Something Different
Editors’ Note: Below, Abigail Green discusses some of the central claims in one of her most recent academic pieces, “Humanitarianism in Nineteenth-Century Context: Religious, Gendered, National” (The Historical Journal, Dec. 2014). In a subsequent post, Amanda Moniz responds to Green’s article. Teaching at Oxford, I’m familiar with the idea that ‘you have to understand the past to understand the present’: … Continue reading
Responding to Abigail Green’s “Humanitarianism in Nineteenth-Century Context”
Editors’ Note: In another post on this site, Abigail Green discusses some of the central claims in one of her most recent academic pieces, “Humanitarianism in Nineteenth-Century Context: Religious, Gendered, National” (The Historical Journal, Dec. 2014). Below, Amanda Moniz responds to Green’s article. Historian or practitioner, our shared interest in the past, present, and future of philanthropy and humanitarianism makes us a … Continue reading
SHAFR’s Annual Conference: Discussing Philanthropy, Humanitarianism, and Human Rights
Editors’ Note: In late June, the annual meeting of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR) took place in Washington DC; and in an earlier post on this site, we noted that some of its panels would be of interest to HistPhil readers. Here, Amanda Moniz provides us with a snapshot of conversations on philanthropy, humanitarianism, and … 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
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