May 27, 2004 | Read Time: 1 minute
Philanthropy, Patronage, and Civil Society: Experiences From Germany, Great Britain, and North America
edited by Thomas Adam
This compilation of essays focuses on the differences and similarities in philanthropy in 19th- and 20th-century Britain, Canada, Germany, and the United States.
Thomas Adam, a professor of German and trans-Atlantic European history at the University of Texas at Arlington, explains that many Americans and Canadians were inspired by their travels to Europe and tried to recreate in North America the types of organizations they observed abroad. For example, he says that John Fiske Comfort was influenced by German galleries and museums and used them as models for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York. Mr. Adam also describes how some U.S. housing programs for low-income people were adapted from similar projects in Europe.
In addition to discussing how philanthropic ideas made their way across the Atlantic, the book covers how philanthropy has evolved. One chapter compares nonprofit groups in seven large U.S. cities over the last 200 years.
Another section of the book focuses on Jewish philanthropy in Germany and the United States. It discusses how Jewish women’s “voluntary societies” helped bring women into the public sphere, and how making contributions to art groups and charities increased the prestige of donors.
Publisher: Indiana University Press, 601 North Morton Street, Bloomington, Ind. 47404-3797; (800) 842-6796; fax (812) 855-7931; iupress@indiana.edu; http://www.indiana.edu/~iupress; 240 pages; $37.95; I.S.B.N. 0-253-34313-5.
