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More Than Just AcademicsApril 2015
Andy Smarick
Some might view the decline of Catholic schools as a Catholic problem. In reality it is an urban education problem that should concern everyone. Catholic schools have power and potential beyond book learning.
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Save the Pawns
January 2015
Tate Watkins
Morally neutral approaches to poverty do not exist,” William Easterly writes in his latest book, The Tyranny of Experts. “Any approach to development will either respect the rights of the poor or it will violate them.” Too many aid agencies treat people in developing countries like chess pieces.
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The Slow Boat to Utopia
January 2015
Travis Kavulla
Ten years in, the ballyhooed Millennium Villages Project is mostly a bust. In Nina Munk’s book The Idealist, Columbia University economist and celebrity academic Jeffrey Sachs, who made a splash with his plan to engineer the end of poverty as we know it, is an ambivalent figure.
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Four Brothers and the ApocalypseOctober 2014
Tom Riley
Sons of Wichita: How the Koch Brothers Became America’s Most Powerful and Private Dynasty—a surprising biography of the Koch family that offers a fascinating window into their life and philanthropy.
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Benefits of a Gift Gone Wrong
July 2014
Jeffrey Cain
By engaging in six years of hard-fought litigation at stiff personal and financial cost, the Robertson children held Princeton University accountable to the agreement that the school had voluntarily made with their parents.
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School Magic
July 2014
Dustin Petzold
Since 1998, 139,000 students have had their life courses altered by the Children’s Scholarship Fund, a program created by donors. In her new book Opportunity and Hope, Naomi Schaefer Riley brings us the stories of ten of the students who benefited from this effort.
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Faithful Giving
April 2014
Scott Walter
The latest social science has good news for philanthropists: Giving profits the giver as well as the receiver. This win-win verdict is actually nothing new. It is a central tenet of the three Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—as a new book by Gary Anderson makes clear.
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Wielding the Profit Motive Against Poverty
April 2014
Ashley May
In The Business Solution to Poverty, entrepreneur Paul Polak and marketing guru Mal Warwick turn development upside down by suggesting that multinational businesses shouldn’t think of the poor as victims, but rather as potential customers.
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A Man Out of Time
January 2014
Tom Riley
There was a time, and it wasn’t very long ago, when Ted Turner was America’s most famous living philanthropist. This new “authorized biography” explores how Turner's life has changed, and why his philanthropy is still fascinating.
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The Tough Road to Excellence
January 2014
Dustin Petzold
What educators abroad have to teach American reformers: Reporter Amanda Ripley argues that the debate on education policy should transcend national boundaries, and that we may want to look to education innovators abroad for ideas and inspiration.
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Books in Brief
January 2013
Reviews of new books on civil liberties on campus, how children succeed, R. J. and Katharine Reynolds, and social justice
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Imperial Might vs. Widow’s Mite
January 2013
Evan Sparks
The emergence of Christian philanthropy—and how it changed world history.
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Conspiracy Philanthropy
October 2012
William Inboden
Are the big foundations really the agents of American imperialism?
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Against the Tide
October 2012
William Schambra
David Horowitz surveys the landscape of liberal grantmakers.
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Books in Brief
July 2012
Short reviews of new books on Alfred Nobel, Coke’s corporate philanthropy, the Carnegie Museum, and more
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Educating a Nation
April 2012
Juan Williams
Stephanie Deutsch’s new book details the unlikely collaboration between Julius Rosenwald and Booker T. Washington.
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Foundation Nation?
January 2012
John Steele Gordon
Olivier Zunz’s new book is a good, if limited, history of 20th century American foundations
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A Lot to Learn
January 2012
Frederick Hess
Frederick M. Hess reviews Steven Brill’s new book on recent developments in K–12 education reform