Patronizing the Public

American Philanthropy's Transformation of Culture, Communication, and the Humanities

William J. Buxton

• Publisher: Lexington Books
• Year: 2009
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9798216335436
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Philosophy History & Theory
• Index: Social Sciences

Patronizing the Public: American Philanthropy's Transformation of Culture, Communication, and the Humanities is the first detailed and comprehensive examination of how American philanthropic foundations have shaped numerous fields, including dance, drama, education, film, film-music, folklore, journalism, local history, museums, radio, television, as well as the performing arts and the humanities in general. Drawing on an impressive range of archival and secondary sources, the chapters in the volume give particular attention to the period from the late 1920s to the late 1970s, a crucial time for the development of philanthropic practice. To this end, it examines how patterns and directions of funding have been based on complex negotiations involving philanthropic family members, elite networks, foundation trustees and officers, cultural workers, academics, state officials, corporate interests, and the general public. By addressing both the contours of philanthropic power as well as the processes through which that power has been enacted, it is hoped that this collection will reinforce and amplify the critical study of philanthropy's history.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Preface
• Chapter 1. Civil Society and its Discontents: Bringing Culture, Communication, and the Humanities into the History of Philanthropy
• Chapter 2. From the Rockefeller Center to the Lincoln Center: Musings on the "Rockefeller Half-Century"
• Chapter 3. Tranformation and Continuity in Rockefeller Child-Related Programs: Implications for the Emergence of Communications as a Field of Concern
• Chapter 4. Communication Practice and Theory in the "New Humanities" and "New General-Education" Programs of Rockefeller Philanthropy, 1933–1940
• Chapter 5. The Rockefeller Foundation and Pan American Radio
• Chapter 6. Hollywood Bypass: MoMA, the Rockefeller Foundation, and New Circuits of Cinema
• Chapter 7. An “Art of Fugue” of Film Scoring: Hanns Eisler’s Rockefeller Foundation-Funded Film Music Project (1940–1942)
• Chapter 8. “Sugar-coating the Educational Pill”: Rockefeller Support for the Communicative Turn in Science Museums
• Chapter 9. The Political Economy of Rockefeller Support for the Humanities in Canada, 1941–1957
• Chapter 10. Inadvertent Architects of Twentieth-Century Media Convergence: Private Foundations and the Reorientation of Foreign Journalists
• Chapter 11. Screen Technology, Mobilization, and Adult Education in the 1950s
• Chapter 12. The Television Activities of the Fund for the Republic
• Chapter 13. “The Weakest Point in Our Record”: Philanthropic Support of Dance and the Arts
• Index
• About the Contributors