Philanthropy in America: A History (review)

In this inspiring, captivating, and thought-provoking book, Zunz presents a comprehensive history of twentieth-century philanthropy in the United States. Following the development of the two constituent streams of American philanthropy—big foundations, such as the Rockefeller Foundation and the Ford Foundation, and mass philanthropy—Zunz shows how the two of them converged. Together, they shaped twentieth-century philanthropy and formed the backbone of American civil society. Thus, the book is not just about philanthropy; it is also a story about the transformative power of such giving. Zunz describes the role of philanthropy in social and political change, from the Rockefeller Sanitary Commission’s initiative in fighting the hook worm in the American South to the civil rights struggle of the 1960s, and from the role of Conservative think tanks in the neoliberal revolution of the 1980s to the support of American philanthropy for the development of civil society in post-Communist countries. In the process, Zunz challenges many of the stereotypical assumptions about the uniqueness of American philanthropy and about the context that allowed American philanthropy to emerge.

Zunz repeatedly emphasizes that tax policy had nothing to do with the initial surge of philanthropy in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Only after World War I did the federal government use tax policy to shape philanthropy and what later came to be called the nonprofit sector. In this context, court cases, laws, and taxation became a tool in confining philanthropy to the social, cultural, and educational sphere, excluding it from participating in or influencing political life.

Comparative scholars will appreciate how Zunz succinctly analyzes American philanthropy as a major ingredient in civil society without having political ties. Foundations created to further the cause of women’s rights and to exercise pressure on politics to provide gender equality were an accepted part of, say, the German philanthropic landscape but were outlawed in the American system. In countries like Germany, philanthropy was not as regulated as it was in the United States; nor was it prevented from entering the political process. The fear that philanthropic institutions could cause social and/or political change is unique to the United States, helping to confirm a view of American society as extremely rigid.

Contrary to the portrayal of American philanthropy as sui generis, Zunz points out that many of the practices of American philanthropy were imported from Europe; the collection drive for the fight against tuberculosis is his case in point. When it became clear that no large donor would take the initiative in this campaign, Jacob Riis introduced the idea of the collection drive for social projects through the sale of special seals from Copenhagen to an American audience. The Red Cross adopted this idea, arranging for seals to be sold at Christmas time to benefit the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis. American philanthropy—at least the nineteenth-century version—was neither an American invention nor uniquely American; it derived largely from European ideas and concepts.