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History Post-confederation (1867-)

Contributing Citizens

Modern Charitable Fundraising and the Making of the Welfare State, 1920-66

by (author) Shirley Tillotson

Publisher
UBC Press
Initial publish date
Jan 2009
Category
Post-Confederation (1867-), Social History
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780774858113
    Publish Date
    Jan 2009
    List Price
    $99.00
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780774814744
    Publish Date
    Jan 2009
    List Price
    $34.95
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780774814737
    Publish Date
    May 2008
    List Price
    $95.00

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Description

Contributing Citizens tells the social, cultural, and political history of Community Chests, the forerunners of today’s United Way, to provide a unique perspective on the evolution of professional fundraising, private charity, and the development of the welfare state. Blending a national perspective with rich case studies of Halifax, Ottawa, and Vancouver, Shirley Tillotson shows that fundraising work in the mid-twentieth century involved organizing and promoting social responsibility in new ways, sometimes coercively. In the 1940s and 1950s, fundraisers adopted the language of welfare state reform and helped to establish both the notion of universal contribution and the foundation of community organization from which major social policies grew. Peopled by a host of forceful characters, this is a lively account of how raising money raised the level of Canadian democracy.

About the author

Awards

  • Short-listed, Harold Adams Innis Prize, Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Science
  • Short-listed, John A. Macdonald Prize from the Canadian Historical Association

Contributor Notes

Shirley Tillotson is Chair of the Department of History at Dalhousie University.