Philanthropy, Patronage, and Civil Society: Experiences from Germany, Great Britain, and North America

In Philanthropy, Patronage, and Civil Society, Thomas Adam has assembleda comparative set of case studies that challenge long-held and little-studiedassumptions about the modern development of philanthropy. Histories of philanthropyhave often neglected European patterns of giving and the importance of financialpatronage to the emergence of modern industrialized societies. It has long beenassumed, for example, that Germany never developed civic traditions of philanthropyas in the United States. In truth, however, 19th-century German museums, artgalleries, and social housing projects were not only privately founded andsupported, they were also blueprints for the creation of similar public institutionsin North America. The comparative method of the essays also reveals the extent towhich the wealthy classes on both sides of the Atlantic defined themselves throughtheir philanthropic activities.Contributors are Thomas Adam, Maria Benjamin Baader, Karsten Borgmann, Tobias Brinkmann, Brett Fairbairn, EckhardtFuchs, David C. Hammack, Dieter Hoffmann, Simone L ssig, Margaret EleanorMenninger, and Susannah Morris.