What ways do we have for understanding charity and philanthropy? How do we come to think in these ways? In this volume, historians of antiquity, the middle ages, early modern thought, and the Victorian era discuss the evolution of thinking about and practicing voluntary giving. An economist and an anthropologist bring their disciplines to bear in showing some aspects of how charity functions now. A historian of African American life in the United States examines traditions of giving in a minority community. The director of a major source of foreign aid discusses the way it all looks from the field. . This book takes up some of the unavoidable questions about charity. If we lived in a wholly just world, would there be any need for charity? Is there genuine altruism at work in philanthropy, or merely the interest of some individual or class? Is there any justification for saying that group self-help does not count as charity? Does charitable giving do more harm than good? Taken together, these varied perspectives on charity constitute a rich and provocative study of something crucial in how we see ourselves in connection with others.