World War I and the humanitarian impulse

Hitchcock, William I.

doi:10.1353/toc.2014.0023

Cited by 3 publications

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“…The impact and consequences of World War I on voluntarism, humanitarianism, and philanthropy in the United States (and elsewhere) is undeniable, as recent historiography has underlined (Cabanes 2014;Hitchcock 2014;Irwin 2013;Little 2009;Watenpaugh 2010). Charitable organizations expanded, politicians and the press devoted more attention to the callousness of war, and philanthropy became more secular and scientific.…”

Section: The Great War: a Turning Point For Philanthropy And Humanitamentioning

confidence: 99%

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“Vibrating between Hope and Fear”: The European War and American Presbyterian Foreign Missions

Libson

2018

Religions

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Scholars have argued that World War I and its aftermath caused a rapid transformation in American global philanthropy. The decline of the American "moral empire" coincided with the rise of professional, bureaucratic, and secular philanthropy. The reasons for this transformation appear almost self-evident: the crisis greatly exceeded the capabilities of all private organizations, leading to the growth of state-supported, public, and semi-public organizations like the American Red Cross. In fact, though, mainline foreign missions grew rapidly after the war and did not decline until the Great Depression. In 1920, for instance, they combined to receive over 80 percent of Red Cross receipts. Even amid the decline of the "moral empire", therefore, mainline foreign missions remained major sources of philanthropic aid and primary representatives of American interests abroad. This article looks at the hopes and fears of Presbyterian (USA) foreign missions in the years before American entry into the (imprecisely named) European War, in order to understand the resilience of foreign missions during a period of crisis. The war created numerous practical, financial, and conceptual challenges. But, it also inspired the mission boards to seek greater sacrifices among donors, to coordinate with other boards and the federal government, and to find alternative methods to achieve its goals. These efforts in the first half of the 1910s prefigured a nationwide transformation in ideas about service and voluntary giving. After the United States entered the war, these "social goods" became nearly obligatory in the minds of many Americans.

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Section: The Great War: a Turning Point For Philanthropy And Humanitamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…6;Irwin 2013). Some historians argue that these developments formed a "key moment" in the history of modern human rights (Cabanes 2014, p. 10; see also Hitchcock 2014;cf. Moyn 2010cf.…”

Section: The Great War: a Turning Point For Philanthropy And Humanitamentioning

confidence: 99%

“Vibrating between Hope and Fear”: The European War and American Presbyterian Foreign Missions

Libson

2018

Religions

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Voluntary organizations, the Red Cross and the features of humanitarian reconstruction in Western Europe after the World Wars

Fathi,

Oppenheimer,

Rosental

2023

European Review of History: Revue européenne d'histoire

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The “Political Red Cross” and the Genealogy of Rights Discourse in Revolutionary Russia

Finkel

2017

The Journal of Modern History

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World War I and the humanitarian impulse

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

“Vibrating between Hope and Fear”: The European War and American Presbyterian Foreign Missions

“Vibrating between Hope and Fear”: The European War and American Presbyterian Foreign Missions

Voluntary organizations, the Red Cross and the features of humanitarian reconstruction in Western Europe after the World Wars

The “Political Red Cross” and the Genealogy of Rights Discourse in Revolutionary Russia

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