Appealing Appeals: Constructing Moral Worthiness, 1912–1917

Abstract

We read the 1912–1917 New York Time's “One Hundred Neediest Cases” charity campaigns in three ways. First, we examine campaigns as they formed an image of the “morally worthy” poor person who was the proper recipient of modern charity. Second, we read these campaigns as moral tales promoting the goodness of the institutional order, particular types of subjects within that order, and particular relationships between subjects who have money and those who need it. Finally, we examine how mythologies, such as those transmitted through these charity campaigns, produce political legitimations, social hierarchy, and structures of domination.