ABSTRACT
Daniel T. Rodgers reminds us that “historical scholarship bends to the task of specifying each nation’s distinctive culture, its peculiar history, . . .”1 Following this tradition, sociologists and historians concerned with the emergence of private and public social-welfare systems all too often claim that there are distinct paths taken by Germany, Great Britain, the United States, and Canada. While Germany is widely identified with a state-centered approach, the United States is considered to be the epitome of private responsibility. Such assumptions are based on studies that focus on the post-World War II era but exclude the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.2 This chapter will suggest that on both sides of the Atlantic, philanthropy was an essential force in dealing with the social challenges of industrialized presocial-welfare-state societies. Furthermore, it will be shown that London developed the first models of social-housing provision and, therefore, became the destination for German and American social reformers throughout the second half of the nineteenth century.3
