Almost Worthy

Brent Ruswick is Assistant Professor of History at West Chester University. He is currently researching a book on the "mutual aid" theory of evolution in American reform.

"[This] study provides a welcome insight into the inner workings of charity organization societies and their drive to eliminate poverty.43.4 2014"—NONPROFIT & VOLUNTARY SEC QTLY"Ruswick's well-researched monograph traces the history of the charity organization society in the US from its origins in the Gilded Age to its merging with social work in the Progressive Era. . . . Recommended."—Choice"Almost Worthy offers a lot of interesting detail pulled from COS case files, professional conference proceedings, journals of the field, and more; some possibly fruitful hypotheses about what to make of changes in COS approaches over time; thoughtful new propositions about the relationship between scientific charity and eugenics (including some charity reformers' apparent remorse); and a fresh, new mini-biography of Oscar McCulloch interspersed throughout."—H-SHGAPE"Brent Ruswick wants to put the science back into scientific charity. He argues that the essence of organized charity was not its class prejudices and censorious attitude toward the poor, but rather its belief that systematic evidence-gathering could serve to improve the quality of charity work and public policy. October 2014 119.4"—American Historical Review

• Acknowledgments1. Introduction: Big Moll and the Science of Scientific Charity2. "Armies of Vice": Evolution, Heredity, and the Pauper Menace3. Friendly Visitors or Scientific Investigators? Befriending and Measuring the Poor4. Opposition, Depression, and the Rejection of Pauperism5. "I See No Terrible Army": Environmental Reform and Radicalism in the Scientific Charity Movement6 The Potentially Normal Poor: Professional Social Work, Psychology, and the End of Scientific CharityEpilogueBibliographyIndex