In this study of voluntary charities in eighteenth-century
London, Donna Andrew reconsiders the adequacy of humanitarianism as
an explanation for the wave of charitable theorizing and
experimentation that characterized this period. Focusing on London,
the most visible area of both destitution and social
experimentation, this book examines the political as well as
benevolent motives behind the great expansion of public
institutions--nondenominational organizations seeking not only to
relieve hardship, but to benefit the nation directly--funded and
run by voluntary associations of citizens. The needs of police, the
maintaining of civil order and the refining of society, were
thought by many ordinary citizens to be central to the expansion of
England's role in the world and to the upholding of the country's
peace at home.
Drawing on previously unexplored and unsynthesized materials,
this work reveals the interaction between charitable theorizing and
practical efforts to improve the condition of the poor. The author
argues that it is impossible to comprehend eighteenth-century
charity without taking into account its perceived social utility,
which altered as circumstances mandated. For example, the charities
of the 1740s and 1750s, founded to aid in the strengthening of
England's international supremacy, lost their public support as
current opinions of England's most urgent needs changed. Creating
and responding to new visions of what well-directed charities might
accomplish, late-century philanthropists tried using charitable
institutions to reknit what they believed was a badly damaged
social fabric.
Originally published in 1989.
The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand
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