The Reputation of Philanthropy since 1750: Britain and beyond
Most people now associate philanthropy with donations of money by the rich to good causes. It has not always been so.
The Reputation of Philanthropy explores how our modern definition came about and asks why philanthropy and philanthropists have always been as likely to be criticised as praised.
Based on original research in newspapers, periodicals, novels and letters, the book provides a compelling account of a shift from philanthropy being a feeling of love of humankind to one where it became heavily engaged in opposing slavery and reforming prisons, both of them political and contentious issues.
On the positive side Britain was praised as the most philanthropic country in the world and something the nation was proud of. But the ‘telescopic philanthropy’ that Charles Dickens lambasted, a philanthropy that focused on those far away to the neglect of the poor at home, was under the spotlight.
Equally contentious was the relationship between philanthropy and political economy: to the critics philanthropy led to the creation of a dependency class, it did more harm than good.
After almost sinking out of sight in the mid-twentieth century, dismissed critically as ‘Victorian’, philanthropy in the twenty-first century has regained a high profile.
Accessible and engaging, the book makes a timely contribution to today’s thinking about the role that philanthropy should play in British society. It will appeal to historians and to those studying and engaged in philanthropy today: the criticisms of it in the past have telling echoes in the present.
Reviews
“Cunningham’s historiography is a departure from traditionally written histories of individual philanthropists and offers the reader a more thorough contemplation of how contemporaries of their time viewed philanthropy.
“…Readers will do well to use this book as an opportunity to consider modern treatment of the terms of philanthropy, through news outlets and primarily, now through social media. What will historians of the future glean from Twitter feeds on modern discourses of philanthropy? Readers may be challenged by how little the conversation has changed since 1750: both a frustration and a curiosity. Cunningham’s historiography forces this reflection, sorely needed in a field often suffering a short memory.”
Voluntas
WATCH: Hugh Cunningham on the reputation of philanthropy
