The American Fund for Public Service: Charles Garland and Radical Philanthropy, 1922-1941

by Gloria G. Samson

Overview

This study examines one organization from the radical left of the 1920s and 1930s: the American Fund for Public Service. Little known today, but infamous in its time, the American Fund represented a united front of anticapitalists—anarchists, socialists, communists, and left-liberals—which attempted to revitalize the left in order to end capitalism and, therefore, war. Financed by Charles Garland, an eccentric, 21-year-old Harvard dropout, the Fund performed the difficult task of allocating relatively meager resources among the most promising radical ventures, typically militant labor organizations. The philanthropy's directors represented a who's who of the labor left of the period: Roger Baldwin, Norman Thomas, Scott Nearing, James Weldon Johnson, and more. The fund anticipated philanthropies later in the century which meant to challenge the status quo beyond reformism. This study will be of interest to scholars of labor relations, radical politics, American history, and philanthropy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313298738
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	02/16/1996
Series:	Contributions in Labor Studies , #46
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.69(d)
Lexile:	1520L (what's this?)

About the Author

GLORIA GARRETT SAMSON has taught at the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University's Rochester extensions and other institutions. She holds degrees from the Universities of Colorado and Rochester.

Table of Contents

Introduction
An Inheritance Rejected
From Progressivism to Radicalism
The ACLU and a New Social Order
Free from the Bonds of Old Institutions
Workers Will Lay Down Their Tools
To Promote the Well-Being of Mankind
Pacifists as Radicals
It Takes Warm Hearts
Chosen to Box the Left Compass
A Sane Enough Radicalism
Spend It Here and Now
Scientific, Pragmatic, Efficient
Emancipation of Their Class in Every Sphere
Bolsheviks in Patriots' Clothing
Tempers Flare
The Rebel Girl Comes Aboard
Surveying the Left
Enemies on the Left
Education and Culture
Recipient Testimonials
"Negro Work"
Passaic
Vanguard Press
Friction Within and Without
Little Left to Repress
"The Manifold Discriminations That Beset Him"
Shift to Low Gear
We Did Quite a Lot of Good
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

Chronicles the role of young philanthropist Charles Garland in the growth of the American Fund for Public Service, a united front of anticapitalists in the 1920-30s. The group of anarchists, socialists, communists, and left-liberals countered the ruling class dominance of all aspects of society, supporting the Federated Press news service, funding the Vanguard Press, and laying the groundwork for research that led to Brown v. the Board of Education. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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