The Development Of George Peabody And The19th Century American Philanthropy

Philanthropy has played a very important role in American society, GeorgePeabody, as one of the founders of modern philanthropy, constructed the frame workof modern philanthropy. Peabody’s life is closely related with the charity, his earlyyears in the financial industry for its accumulated a lot of wealth, laid the economicfoundation for the future charity, Peabody’s life and experiences, a popular19thcentury social thought and progressive movements had a profound impact on thePeabody charity. Peabody’s charity great significant in the history of Americanphilanthropy and has become the beginning of modern philanthropy institution andtraditional culture.This paper consists of five parts: introduction, text, concluding, references andappendices.The introduction mainly introduces the current remarks of modern philanthropy,and summarizes briefly the relevant research of oversea academics communities.Moreover, interprets the significance on choosing the title and the research approachof this paper.The text is made up of three parts: The first part briefly focuses the developmentof American philanthropy, including the connotation of American philanthropy andthe colonial philanthropy. The second part mainly studies the development Americanphilanthropy and the Peabody charity road in the19thcentury, it is discussed indetailed from three aspects, including the development of American philanthropybackground, Peabody charity road, Peabody contributions to the charity. The thirdpart analyses the influences of the Peabody charity activities, including the influenceon the development of American higher education, the impact on African Americans,as well as the impact on the American society, so as to deepen our understanding ofthis issue.This paper attempts to make an analysis of Peabody from the view of the charity,inquiries the background and reasons that the financial tycoon Peabody became the American largest philanthropists, explains the development of American philanthropyin the19thcentury and the Peabody concept of wealth, to make people fully realizePeabody’s charity of American society. Meanwhile, the distribution of wealth and thevulnerable groups of the charity concern has become an important issue at the presentstage of China’s development, and thus also has some practical significance.