Almost worthy : the poor, paupers, and the science of charity in America, 1877-1917

Author(s)

    • Ruswick, Brent

Bibliographic Information

Almost worthy : the poor, paupers, and the science of charity in America, 1877-1917

Brent Ruswick

(Philanthropic and nonprofit studies)

Indiana University Press, c2013

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Note

Includes bibliographical references (p. 245-257) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

In the 1880s, social reform leaders warned that the "unworthy" poor were taking charitable relief intended for the truly deserving. Armed with statistics and confused notions of evolution, these "scientific charity" reformers founded organizations intent on limiting access to relief by the most morally, biologically, and economically unfit. Brent Ruswick examines a prominent national organization for scientific social reform and poor relief in Indianapolis in order to understand how these new theories of poverty gave birth to new programs to assist the poor.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 1. Introduction: Big Moll and the Science of Scientific Charity 2. "Armies of Vice": Evolution, Heredity, and the Pauper Menace 3. Friendly Visitors or Scientific Investigators? Befriending and Measuring the Poor 4. Opposition, Depression, and the Rejection of Pauperism 5. "I See No Terrible Army": Environmental Reform and Radicalism in the Scientific Charity Movement 6 The Potentially Normal Poor: Professional Social Work, Psychology, and the End of Scientific Charity Epilogue Bibliography Index

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