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作者

来源

JOURNAL OF URBAN HISTORY,Vol.44,Issue3,P.402-420

语言

英文

关键字

Houston; philanthropy; urban south; charities; social policy

作者单位

[Henthorn, Thomas C.] Univ Michigan, US Hist, Flint, MI 48503 USA. Henthorn, TC (reprint author), Univ Michigan, 303 E Kearsley St,260 French Hall, Flint, MI 48503 USA. E-Mail: henthorn@umflint.edu

摘要

When Houston Texas grew from a sleepy, southern entrepot to sunbelt metropolis, the city's commercial civic elite adopted a systematic approach of organized philanthropy as a way to rationalize giving and bring it in line with modern urban services. As a select set of city builders transformed local giving from random charitable impulses to increasingly complex philanthropic undertakings, their benevolent behavior took many forms, from scientific charity to regulatory action and, finally, to detached foundations. Over time, more rational giving also became more professional and wealthy donors sought a new statusthat of philanthropistand with it, the great cultural authority to address the city's social problems. Philanthropists in Houston fashioned a number of mechanisms to realize their vision of what the modern metropolis should be. Understanding this vision adds to our knowledge of the multiple voices that derived power and status from their efforts to guide the construction of growing cities.