Unsentimental reformer
Subtitle: the life of Josephine Shaw Lowell
By: Joan Waugh
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 296
ISBN-13: 9780674930360
Subjects: Women social reformers; Sociale hervormingen; Women philanthropists; Liefdadigheid; Biographie; Armoede; Charity Organization Society of the City of New York; Biography; History
Other titles: Life of Josephine Shaw Lowell
Description: Such was the massive and pitiless industrialization of the nation after the Civil War that Josephine Shaw Lowell (1843-1905) recoiled and sought a new way to approach poverty. She rationalized charity toward hapless families and children in ways that established social responsibility for the welfare of the poor.

A Brahmin, member of an illustrious family, sister of the martyred Robert Gould Shaw, who led his proud black troops against Fort Wagner, and, later, a war widow, Lowell constantly responded to changing ideological and economic conditions affecting the poor.

This book challenges all previous interpretations of Lowell as a "genteel" reformer mostly interested in social control of the underclass. Rather, her aim was to cure pauperism, and her strategies eventually led her to support higher wages and full employment.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [285]-289) and index.