Publisher's Synopsis
During the Civil War, a crisis erupted in philanthropy that dramatically changed humanitarian theories and practices, and demanded new approaches to humanitarian work. This book tracks these upheavals and innovations within organized benevolence from 1859 to 1868, investigating the unorthodox humanitarian projects that flourished in this era. Certain writer-activists began to advocate an "eccentric benevolence" - a type of philanthropy that would undo the hierarchical distinction between powerful agents who bestow humanitarian assistance and weaker folks who receive it. Among the figures Gregory Eiselein discusses are the anti-philanthropic Henry David Thoreau; the dangerously philanthropic John Brown; African American writers Harriet Wilson and Harriet Jacobs; and Walt Whitman and Louisa May Alcott, whose nursing experiences with the wounded led them to believe that hospital care should be centered around patients' attitudes, feelings, and needs. Reconsidering the cultural history of philanthropy and alternative notions of helping, Eiselein points toward a less coercive and more egalitarian humanitarianism.
