Acts of Conspicuous Compassion: Performance Culture and American Charity Practices

Contents

CoNteNtS Introduction 1 ChaPter 1. Dramatizing Distress: Sentimental Culture, Melodrama, and Nineteenth-Century Reform for the Deaf/Dumb and Blind 18 ChaPter 2. Spectacular Benevolence: Theatricalizing the War on Polio with the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (NFIP), 1934–1945 49 ChaPter 3. Wheelchairs and One-Liners: Televising Need in the Charity Telethon 88 ChaPter 4. Acts of Conspicuous Compassion: Charity in the Reality TV Era: Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 128 Conclusion 152 Notes 167 Bibliography 183 Index 205 ...