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Kathleen McCarthy

Kathleen McCarthy faculty photo black and white

Research Interests

  • Nineteenth Century U.S. History
  • Philanthropy
  • Civil Society
  • Voluntary Associations and Social Reform

Education

  • Ph. D. University of Chicago

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Kathleen McCarthy earned her Ph.D. in history from the University of Chicago and joined the Graduate Center in 1986. She is founding director of the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society at the Graduate Center. McCarthy teaches nineteenth-century U.S. history and the history of women and gender. Her books, edited volumes, and articles explore philanthropy and civil society in local, national, and international contexts, and she has lectured on these topics in more than thirty countries. Her authored books include American Creed: Philanthropy and the Rise of Civil Society (2003); Women’s Culture: American Philanthropy and Art, 1830–1930 (1991), cowinner of the 1994 Distinguished Book Award of the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA); and Noblesse Oblige: Charity and Cultural Philanthropy in Chicago, 1829–1929 (1982). She served as editor for Lady Bountiful Revisited: Women, Philanthropy and Power (1990) and Women, Philanthropy, and Civil Society (2001). She is currently working on a book titled “Women, Power and Money in the United States.”
 
McCarthy is the past president of ARNOVA and has served as chairperson of the Nonprofit Academic Centers Council and treasurer of the International Society for Third Sector Research. In 1999, she served on the informal planning group for the first White House Conference on Philanthropy, in which she was also a participant. McCarthy has appeared in PBS documentaries and on 20/20 and other television programs, and has been widely quoted in the press in the United States and overseas.

Kathleen McCarthy faculty photo black and white

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Books

American Creed: Philanthropy and the Rise of Civil Society 1700-1865

American Creed: Philanthropy and the Rise of Civil Society 1700-1865

by Kathleen McCarthy Professor, History

The first historical account of the development of civil society in the United States, American Creed by Kathleen McCarthy shows how democracy was linked with philanthropy and voluntarism throughout our nation's beginnings. The volume traces the rise of such activism from its colonial precedents-including Benjamin Franklin's Leather Apron Men," a group of civic leaders, and Franklin's own charitable giving-to the emergence of important women's charities for the sick and poor, to religious benevolent societies, to Northern black congregations-such as the African Methodist Episcopal Church-that played a crucial role in organizing abolitionist activities. Following the "creed" of civic duty through its many tests, McCarthy provides a vital reevaluation of public life during the decades leading up to the Civil War. 

Published May 2003
University of Chicago Press, 2003

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Women, Philanthropy,Civil Society

Women, Philanthropy, Civil Society

by Kathleen McCarthy Professor, History

Female benificence-as Islamic activism in Egypt, as religious charities in nineteenth-century Ireland, as secular and non-secular philanthropy in places as diverse as Norway, Brazil, Korea, Israel, and India-has shaped non-governmental political organizations (NGOs), civil society, and women's political culture worldwide. Women, Philanthropy, & Civil Society grew out of a research project by the Center for the Study of Philanthropy at The Graduate Center, of which McCarthy is the director. The study's aims were to elucidate the role of women in building civil society through their gifts of money and time in a variety of countries," with research focusing on religion, on the "maternalist" form of female philanthropy, and on the role of women-started NGOs in weak, decentralized states. 

Published September 2001
Indiana University Press, 2001

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