Overview

Unique among nations, America conducts almost all of its formally organised religious activity, and many cultural, arts, human service, educational, and research activities through private non-profit organisations. Though partially founded by government, as well as by fees and donations, American non-profits have pursued their missions with considerable independence. Many have amassed remarkable resources and acquired some of the most impressive hospital, university, performing arts, and museums facilities in the world. While some have amassed large endowments, many that surpass one billion dollars, there are also hundreds of thousands of small non-profits, most with no tangible resources at all. How did the United States come to rely so heavily non-profits? why has it continued to do so? what purposes do Americans seek to advance through non-profits? how have Americans sought to control them? how have non-profits been affected by the growth of government in the 20th century? These questions suggests the complexity of the history of non-profits in the United States. To help explore that history, this book presents some of the classic documents in the development of the non-profit sector along with important interpretations by recent scholars. The selections can be considered a representative part of a single extended conversation by the men and women who have taken part in the effort to define America and the American dream, even as they shaped what we now call the non-profit sector. The statements by participants in the growth and development of the non-profit sector are accompanied by essays written by historians and social scientists that provide concise surveys of important issues and periods. The essays give voice to those whose contributions to the American debate about voluntary associations and private institutions would otherwise be difficult to find or comprehend. Each selection has been chosen to define or illuminate important questions in the development of the non-profit sector in the united States. Many include criticism of particular non-profit efforts, or of non-profit activity in general. The intention is to provoke thought, not to establish an official list of readings. Though not every point of view could be included, the reader does reflect a general understanding of the nature of the non-profit sector and its significance in the development of the United States.

Full Product Details

9780253214102

Table of Contents

Reviews

This is a volume that everyone concerned about nonprofits--scholar, practitioner, and citizen--will find useful and illuminating. --ARNOVA News What David C. Hammack conveys most vividly in his new book is how deeply the roots of the nonprofit sector are intertwined with this nation's earliest history and with its most fundamental political principles. --Museum News A remarkable book. --Robert Putnam, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

Author Information

DAVID C. HAMMACK is Hiram C. Haydn Professor of History and Chair of the Committee on Educational Programs of the Mandel Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Case Western Reserve University. Previously he taught in the City University of New York and at Princeton University. Hammack has held a Guggenheim Fellowship and was a Resident Fellow at the Russell Sage Foundation. His research has also been supported by grants from the American Council of Learned Societies and the Aspen Institute Nonprofit Sector Research Fund. He is the author of Power and Society: Greater New York at the Turn of the Century and Social Science in the Making: Essays on the Russell Sage Foundation, 1907-1972, and editor with Dennis Young, of Nonprofit Organizations in Market Economy.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available