Unsentimental Reformer : The Life of Josephine Shaw Lowell / Joan Waugh.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Waugh, Joan, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Charity Organization Society of the City of New York--History.

HISTORY / United States / General.

Lowell, Josephine Shaw, 1843-1905.

Women philanthropists--New York (State)--Biography.

Women social reformers--New York (State)--Biography.

Local Subjects:

Charity Organization Society of the City of New York--History.

HISTORY / United States / General.

Lowell, Josephine Shaw, 1843-1905.

Women philanthropists--New York (State)--Biography.

Women social reformers--New York (State)--Biography.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Edition:

Reprint 2014

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2014]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

If the poor are always with us, how we have perceived and treated them has changed like the seasons. Such was the massive and pitiless industrialization of the nation after the Civil War that Josephine Shaw Lowell (1843-1905) recoiled and sought a new way to approach poverty. She rationalized charity toward hapless families and children in ways that established social responsibility for the welfare of the poor. This introduction of "scientific" methods in social work bridged two great eras of social reform, creating a civic maternalism only denied in law in 1996. A Brahmin, member of an illustrious family, sister of the martyred Robert Gould Shaw, who led his proud black troops against Fort Wagner, and, later, a war widow, Lowell constantly responded to changing ideological and economic conditions affecting the poor. From an emphasis on the regeneration of the individual, she soon showed an appreciation of the importance of social conditions. This book challenges all previous interpretations of Lowell as a "genteel" reformer mostly interested in social control of the underclass. Rather, her aim was to cure pauperism, and her strategies eventually led her to support higher wages and full employment.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Beginnings

2. First Heroes

3. Lights and Shadows

4. Charity Is Our Science

5. The Commissioner

6. Charity Organization

7. The Labor Question

8. The Useful Citizen

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Mai 2019)

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

0-674-43748-9

OCLC:

654694224