Giving


Book Description

"According to Greek mythology mankind's first benefactor was the Titan, Prometheus, who gave fire, previously the exclusive possession of the gods, to mortal man." With these words the esteemed scholar Robert Bremner presents the first full-fledged history of attitudes toward charity and philanthropy. 'Giving' is a perfect complement to his earlier work The Discovery of Poverty in the United States. The word 'philanthropy' has been translated in a variety of ways: as a loving human disposition, loving kindness, love of mankind, charity, fostering mortal man, championing mankind, and helping people. Bremner's book covers all of these meanings in rich detail. Bremner describes the ancient world and classical attitudes toward giving and begging; Middle Ages and early modern times, emphasizing hospitals and patients and donors and attributes of charity; the eighteenth century and the age of benevolence; the nineteenth century and the growth of the concept of public relief and social policy; and a careful multiple chapter review of the twentieth century. Bremner reviews the act of giving in such comparative contexts as London, England and Kasrilevke, Russia with such figures as Thomas Carlyle, Charles Dickens, and Sholem Aleichem, as well as the more familiar wealthy industrialist/philanthropists, forming part of the narrative. The final chapters bring the story up to date, discussing the relationships of modem philanthropy and organized charity, and the uses of philanthropy in education and the arts. Bremner has an astonishing knowledge of the cultural context and the economic contents of philanthropy. As a result, this volume is intriguing as well as important history, written with lively style and wit. Whether the reader is a professional in the so-called "third stream" or "independent sector," or simply a citizen wondering just what the act of giving and the spirit of receiving is all about, 'Giving' will be compelling reading.







Charity, Philanthropy, and Civility in American History


Book Description

This book presents professional historians addressing the dominant issues and theories offered to explain the history of American philanthropy and its role in American society. The essays develop and enlighten the major themes proposed by the books' editors, oftentimes taking issue with each other in the process. The overarching premise is that philanthropic activity in America has its roots in the desires of individuals to impose their visions of societal ideals or conceptions of truth upon their society. To do so, they have organized in groups, frequently defining themselves and their group's role in society in the process.




Finding Charity’s Folk


Book Description

Finding Charity’s Folk highlights the experiences of enslaved Maryland women who negotiated for their own freedom, many of whom have been largely lost to historical records. Based on more than fifteen hundred manumission records and numerous manuscript documents from a diversity of archives, Jessica Millward skillfully brings together African American social and gender history to provide a new means of using biography as a historical genre. Millward opens with a striking discussion about how researching the life of a single enslaved woman, Charity Folks, transforms our understanding of slavery and freedom in Revolutionary America. For African American women such as Folks, freedom, like enslavement, was tied to a bondwoman’s reproductive capacities. Their offspring were used to perpetuate the slave economy. Finding loopholes in the law meant that enslaved women could give birth to and raise free children. For Millward, Folks demonstrates the fluidity of the boundaries between slavery and freedom, which was due largely to the gendered space occupied by enslaved women. The gendering of freedom influenced notions of liberty, equality, and race in what became the new nation and had profound implications for African American women’s future interactions with the state.




Charity


Book Description

In this reappraisal of charity in the biblical tradition, Anderson argues that the poor constituted the privileged place where Jews and Christians met God. He shows how charity affirms the goodness of the created order; the world was created through charity and therefore rewards it.




The Politics of Charity


Book Description

For the first time since 1601, a number of leading common law nations have almost simultaneously chosen to revise and place on the statute books the law relating to charity. The Politics of Charity examines the reasons for this and for the varying legislative outcomes. This book examines the legal framework and political significance of charity, as developed within England & Wales, contrasts this with the experiences of other common law nations and explores the resulting implications for government/sector relationships in those countries. It suggests that charity law lies at the heart of the relationship between government and the non profit sector, that there is an unmistakeable political agenda driving charity law reform and that the differential in legislative outcomes reflects important differences in the policies pursued by the governments concerned. Looking at fundamentally different approaches of government towards the sector in the UK, Ireland, the US, New Zealand, Canada, Singapore and Australia, O’Halloran argues the results will have implications for the present workings of parliamentary democracy. The Politics of Charity will be a valuable resource for academics, regulators and legal practitioners as well as advanced and postgraduate students in law, politics and public policy.




The Church of England - Charity Law and Human Rights


Book Description

This book examines the interface between religion, charity law and human rights. It does so by treating the Church of England and its current circumstances as a timely case study providing an opportunity to examine the tensions that have now become such a characteristic feature of that interface. Firstly, it suggests that the Church is the primary source of canon law principles that have played a formative role in shaping civic morality throughout the common law jurisdictions: the history of their emergence and enforcement by the State in post-Reformation England is recorded and assessed. Secondly, it reveals that of such principles those of greatest weight were associated with matters of sexuality: in particular, for centuries, family law was formulated and applied with regard for the sanctity of the heterosexual marital family which provided the only legally permissible context for any form of sexual relationship. Thirdly, given that history, it identifies and assesses the particular implications that now arise for the Church as a consequence of recent charity law reform outcomes and human rights case law developments: a comparative analysis of religion related case law is provided. Finally, following an outline of the structure and organizational functions of the Church, a detailed analysis is undertaken of its success in engaging with these issues in the context of the Lambeth Conferences, the wider Anglican Communion and in the ill-fated Covenant initiative. From the perspective of the dilemmas currently challenging the moral authority of the Church of England, this book identifies and explores the contemporary ‘moral imperatives’ or red line issues that now threaten the coherence of Christian religions in most leading common law nations. Gay marriage and abortion are among the host of morally charged and deeply divisive topics demanding a reasoned response and leadership from religious bodies. Attention is given to the judicial interpretation and evaluation of these and other issues that now undermine the traditional role of the Church of England. As the interface between religion, charity law and human rights becomes steadily more fractious, with religious fundamentalism and discrimination acquiring a higher profile, there is now a pressing need for a more balanced relationship between those with and those without religious beliefs. This book will be an invaluable aid in starting the process of achieving a triangulated relationship between the principles of canon law, charity law and human rights law.




Charity, Self-Interest And Welfare In Britain


Book Description

First published in 1996. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.




The Encyclopaedia Britannica


Book Description




Charity and Economy in the Orphanages of Early Modern Augsburg


Book Description

This book examines the complex interrelationship between charity, confession, and capital in the orphanages of Augsburg, one of early modern Europe's great manufacturing and mercantile centers. The product of monumental, original research, if offers a thorough-going revision of current historical scholarship on poor relief, social discipline, organization building, and emergent capitalism.