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Journal ArticleDOI

Phoebe Apperson Hearst's Gospel of Wealth, 1883––1901

01 Nov 2002-Pacific Historical Review (University of California Press Journals)-Vol. 71, Iss: 4, pp 575-605
TL;DR: Hearst's "gospel" declared that leisure women had a sacred duty to give to causes, especially progressive education and reform, that would benefit their communities and help those excluded or marginalized from America's mainstream, as well as advance these women's careers as reformers and political leaders.
Abstract: In response to the critics who charged that his money was tainted, Andrew Carnage devised an ideology that came to be known as the "Gospel of Wealth." Carnegie's "gospel" mostly helped the ambitious, young white men. But wealthy women like Phoebe Apperson Hearst also played a major role in redefining the "Gospel of Wealth." The goal of this article is to define and explain Hearst's "gospel" and show how it made her the complementary equal of such men as Carnegie. Hearst's "gospel" declared that leisure women had a sacred duty to give to causes, especially progressive education and reform, that would benefit their communities and help those excluded or marginalized from America's mainstream, as well as advance these women's careers as reformers and political leaders. While Hearst's approach helped those left out by Carnegie's style of philanthropy, namely women, it also was a reasoned but intuitive plan to advance her career and status, silence her critics, obtain and wield the power to define political issues, and realize reform goals. As such, Phoebe Apperson Hearst became the complementary equal of prominent, powerful men like Andrew Carnegie.
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Book ChapterDOI
Andrea Walton1
01 Jan 2019
TL;DR: The history of higher education can be classified into four categories: insider accounts, foundations, biographies, black education, and higher education history as discussed by the authors, focusing on pivotal moments and areas of particular interest.
Abstract: This essay is organized chronologically and thematically to provide an introduction to the literature on the history of philanthropy in higher education. It focuses on pivotal moments and areas of particular interest. The chronological part begins by considering early writings on philanthropy—what can be called advocacy literature—and then discusses the pioneering academic writings that directly address the history of philanthropy in higher education. Because the relevant literature on the history of philanthropic action in higher education is dispersed across many genres, area studies, and institutional histories, the thematic sections of the essay focus on certain areas: insider accounts, foundations, biographies, black education, and histories of higher education. This essay characterizes the existing literature as “distinctively discontinuous” and calls for more sustained critical inquiry in all the areas of literature presented. In particular, given that foundations were the most powerful of philanthropies in the early development of the university in the United States, this essay calls for greater access to foundation records along with support for the study of foundation archives.

11 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Hearst was a prime mover in the kindergarten movement and PTA, established women's scholarships at UC Berkeley, and was UC's first female regent as discussed by the authors, and supported individual artists and ensembles, staged elaborate musicales at her various homes, funded music performing spaces, patronized renowned singers and instrumentalists, provided musical performances for college students and the general public.
Abstract: Phoebe Apperson Hearst, called “California's greatest woman” at her death in 1919, was very rich—and very philanthropic Despite attending school in rural Missouri only a year or so past the eighth grade, Hearst directed her most influential benefactions toward education, particularly for women She became a prime mover in the kindergarten movement and PTA, established women's scholarships at UC Berkeley, and was UC's first female regent This article, drawing on Hearst's extensive archive, describes music's role in her philanthropy She supported individual artists and ensembles, staged elaborate musicales at her various homes, funded music performing spaces, patronized renowned singers and instrumentalists, provided musical performances for college students and the general public, and encouraged the formation of an opera school As a female patron championing women's education, Hearst was caught between the conservative ideology of male–female “spheres” and the New Woman movement of the early twentieth century Her wealth allowed her to transcend old models; yet she was also conditioned by them, as shown in her attitudes toward women's suffrage and “proper” female behaviors By bolstering the traditional view of women as the culture-bearers in US society, Hearst's philanthropy functioned as both retrospective reinforcement and progressive idealism

10 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article challenges the traditional retelling of Shinn's story still further, by exploring how Shinn used her professional contacts from her previous role as editor of the Overland Monthly to promote a wide range of causes related to child study and education.
Abstract: Previous scholarship on the life of psychologist Milicent Shinn (E Scarborough & L Furumoto, 1987 ) emphasized Shinn's failure to pursue an academic career in psychology following her PhD in 1898 Scarborough and Furumoto used Shinn as an example of "the family claim"-the career limitations women faced in terms of their family obligations This narrative, however, obscured Shinn's continued engagement with child study before and after her years in graduate school, as a recent article documenting Shinn's leadership of network of home-based observers of infant development makes clear (C von Oertzen, 2013 ) This article challenges the traditional retelling of Shinn's story still further, by exploring how Shinn used her professional contacts from her previous role as editor of the Overland Monthly to promote a wide range of causes related to child study and education Following G Lerner ( 1979 ), the author attends to Shinn's own values, such as her love of California, education, and her family These values suggest a much more positive evaluation of Shinn's life work and the domestic environment in which she conducted her research and advocacy work

7 citations


Cites background from "Phoebe Apperson Hearst's Gospel of ..."

  • ...Hearst would donate just such a building to the school in 1898—a stylish wooden entertainment hall from Hearst’s property was moved to campus and remodeled as Hearst Hall, providing much needed social and athletic space for female students (Nickliss, 2002)....

    [...]

  • ...Her UC Berkeley philanthropy targeted gender inequality—she endowed scholarships for women and created a business employing the school’s female students (Nickliss, 2002)....

    [...]

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The women's college gymnasium's geographical, architectural and spatializing arrangements have historically been important ingredients in the social constitution of the gendered body as discussed by the authors. But the women's gyms are not suitable for women.
Abstract: The women’s college gymnasium’s geographical, architectural and spatializing arrangements have historically been important ingredients in the social constitution of the gendered body. It ha...

4 citations

References
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: For instance, the Dictionnaire de la langue francaise in 1876 was, "On ne sait de quel genre il est, s'il est mile ou femelle, se dit d'un homnme tres-cache, dont on ne connait pas les sentiments" as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: TH1OSE WHO WOULD CODIFY THE MEANINGS OF WORDS fight a losing battle, for words, like the ideas and things they are mneant to signify, have a history. Neither Oxford dons nor the Academie FranUaise have been entirely able to stem the tide, to capture and fix mneanings free of the play of huinan invention and imagination. Mary Wortley Montagu added bite to her witty denunciation "of the fair sex" ("my only consolation for being of that gender has been the assurance of never being mnarried to any one among them") by deliberately misusing the grammatical reference. ' Through the ages, people have made figurative allusions by employing gramnmnatical termns to evoke traits of character or sexuality. For example, the usage offered by the Dictionnaire de la langue francaise in 1876 was, "On ne sait de quel genre il est, s'il est mile ou femelle, se dit d'un homnme tres-cache, dont on ne connait pas les sentiments."2 And Gladstone made this distinction in 1878: "Athene has nothing of sex except the gender, nothing of the woman except the form."3 Most recently-too recently to find its way into dictionaries or the Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences-feminists have in a imore literal and serious vein begun to use "gender" as a way of referring to the social organization of the relationship between the sexes. The connection to grammar is both explicit and full of unexamined possibilities. Explicit because the grammatical usage involves formal

2,883 citations

Book ChapterDOI
TL;DR: The authors argued that poststructuralist theory is the only theory that can explain the workings of patriarchy in all its manifestations, accounting not only for continuities but also for change over time.
Abstract: That feminism needs theory goes without saying (perhaps because it has been said so often). What is not always clear is what that theory will do, although there are certain common assumptions I think we can find in a wide range of feminist writings. We need theory that can analyze the workings of patriarchy in all its manifestations – ideological, institutional, organizational, subjective – accounting not only for continuities but also for change over time. We need theory that will let us think in terms of pluralities and diversities rather than of unities and universals. We need theory that will break the conceptual hold, at least, of those long traditions of (Western) philosophy that have systematically and repeatedly construed the world hierarchically in terms of masculine universals and feminine specificities. We need theory that will enable us to articulate alternative ways of thinking about (and thus acting upon) gender without either simply reversing the old hierarchies or confirming them. And we need theory that will be useful and relevant for political practice. It seems to me that the body of theory referred to as poststructuralism best meets all these requirements. It is not by any means the only theory nor are its positions and formulations unique. In my own case, however, it was reading poststructuralist theory and arguing with literary scholars that provided the elements of clarification for which I was looking.

890 citations

Book
01 Jan 1989
TL;DR: A reassessment of religion and culture in the early days of the American Republic, arguing that during this period American Christianity was democratized and common people became powerful actors on the religious scene, was co-winner of the 1990 John Hope Franklin Publication Prize.
Abstract: A reassessment of religion and culture in the early days of the American Republic, arguing that during this period American Christianity was democratized and common people became powerful actors on the religious scene. This book was co-winner of the 1990 John Hope Franklin Publication Prize.

672 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the word ‘feminism’ continues to inspire controversy-indeed, even to create fear among a sizeable portion of the general public.
Abstract: What is feminism? Who is a feminist? How do we understand feminism across national boundaries? Across cultures? Across centuries? These questions are raised every day, by activists in the contemporary women’s movement, by scholars, in the press and in informal conversation. Everyone seems to have different answers, and every answer is infused with a political and emotional charge. The word ‘feminism’ continues to inspire controversy-indeed, even to evoke fear among a sizeable portion of the general public. If words and the concepts they convey can be said to be dangerous, then ‘feminism’ and ‘feminist’ must be dangerous words, representing dangerous concepts. Despite Virginia Woolf’s attempt some fifty years ago to ‘kill’ the word ‘feminism’, it continues to be used. The concepts it stands for clearly retain ‘a force of tremendous power’.1

471 citations