Perfect Gift

Amy A. Kass, Senior Lecturer in the Humanities Collegiate Division at the University of Chicago, is an award-winning teacher. Her previous anthologies include American Lives: Cultural Differences, Individual Distinction and (with Leon Kass) Wing to Wing, Oar to Oar: Readings on Courting and Marrying.

• Preliminary Table of Contents: Introduction I. Why Should I Give?1. Genesis 4, The Offering of Cain2. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics: "Generosity, Extravagance, and Stinginess"3. Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America: Freedom and Utility4. George Eliot, "An Arresting Voice" 5. O. Henry, "Two Thanksgiving Day Gentlemen"6. C. S. Lewis, "Charity"7. P. G. Wodehouse, "Jeeves Takes Charge" 8. William F. May, "The Prayers of Thanksgiving"9. Barry Schwartz, "The Social Psychology of Giving"10. Clifford Orwin, "Princess Diana and Mother Teresa: Compassion and Christian Charity"11. Elizabeth M. Lynn and D. Susan Wisely, "Toward a Fourth Philanthropic Response: American Philanthropy and its Public" II. How Should I Give? 1. Matthew 25:1?46, Three Parables2. Homer, The Odyssey: The Meeting of Nausikaa and Odysseus3. Moses Maimonides, "Eight Levels of Charity"4. Sarah Orne Jewett, "Spur of the Moment" 5. Isaac Peretz, "Motl Prince" 6. Jane Addams, "Charitable Effort" 7. O. Henry, "The Chair of Philanthromathematics" 8. Edith Wharton, "The Rembrandt" 9. Rudyard Kipling, "The Record of Badalia Herodsfoot" 10. Sylvia Warner, "A Work of Art"11. John Reed, "Another Case of Ingratitude"12. Gwendolyn Brooks, "The Lovers of the Poor"III. To Whom or For What Should I Give?1. Genesis 25:19?34; 27?28:9, Parents and Children: The Case of Jacob and Esau2. Matthew 25:14?30, The Parable of the Talents3. William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens, Act I, Scene 14. William H. McGuffey, "True and False Philanthropy"5. Andrew Carnegie, "The Gospel of Wealth"6. Henri Barbusse, "The Eleventh"7. Stephen Leacock, "Mr. Plumter, B. A., Revisits the Old Shop"8. Stephen Crane, "The Men in the Storm"9. Leon Kass, "Charity and the Confines of Compassion" IV. What Should I Give? 1. Luke 15:11?32, The Parable of the Prodigal Son2. Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America: "Appendix U," The Pioneer Woman3. Sholom Aleichem, "Reb Yozifl and the Contractor" 4. Rabindranath Tagore, "Gift" 5. O. Henry, "The Gift of the Magi"6. Robert Frost, "The Death of the Hired Hand"7. Dorothy Parker, "Song of the Shirt, 1941"8. John O'Hara, "Memorial Fund" 9. Eudora Welty, "Lily Daw and the Three Ladies"10. Lewis Hyde, "Some Food We Cannot Eat"11. Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie: "The Eighth Tuesday: We Talk About Money"V. Can Giving Be Taught?1. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics: "Moral Virtue and Habituation"2. Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin: Practice Makes Perfect?3. Woodrow Wilson, "Princeton for the Nation's Service"4. Pierre Mac Orlan, "The Philanthropist"5. Kenneth E. Kirk, Worship, Humility and Service6. Stephen Vincent Benet, "The Bishop's Beggar" 7. Edward Holmes, "Town Office" 8. His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama, "Giving and Receiving: A Practical Way of Directing Love and Compassion"9. Elizabeth M. Lynn and D. Susan Wisely, "Only Reflect: A Philanthropic Education for Our Time"