The Whole Spirit of Modern Philanthropy

The Construction of the Idea of Charity, 1912-1992

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2484994
AutoresDonileen R Loseke (University of South Florida, autor correspondente)
Ano1997
Volume44
Fascículo4
Páginas425-444
Data de publicação1997-11-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoSocial Problems (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0037-7791 • E-ISSN: 1533-8533
EditoraOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/3097216
OpenAlexW1981962404
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas30
Referências citadas23

In this last decade of the twentieth century, taxpayers and politicians seem united in their disdain for the system of “public welfare” in the United States. At the same time, the idea of “private charity” is held in high regard; some observers argue that public welfare should be dismantled and replaced with private charity. A simple question leads this paper: How are the moralities of “private charity” discursively formed? Here I examine how the moralities of charity and its clients are produced through the texts of the New York Times “Neediest Cases” charity appeals from 1912 through 1992. I read these campaigns as producing multiple moralities: Charity is formed as a sacred morality of religion, an all but sacred morality of democratic community, an economic morality of individualistic capitalism, and a human morality of compassion. I argue that this multiplicity of moralities gives the idea of charity its political and rhetorical power. So the education in giving goes on from generation to generation. It is not merely the gift that counts or the help that is given the neediest; it is the acquainting of the families year after year, as children grow into youth and youth into manhood and womanhood, with the conditions about them and the cultivation of the habit of giving. (New York Times 1937g)

Aesthetics · Art · Compassion · Democracy · Environmental ethics · Individualism · Morality · Political science · Politics · Rhetorical question · Sociology · American Constitutional Law and Politics · American Political and Social Dynamics · Law · Nonprofit Sector and Volunteering · Philosophy · Political and Economic history of UK and US · Religion, Society, and Development · Tourism, Volunteerism, and Development