Telethons

Paul K. Longmore, until his death in 2009, was Professor of History at San Francisco State. His books include The Invention of George Washington. Why I Burned My Book and Other Essays on Disability, and the coedited volume, The New Disability History: American Perspectives.

• Abbreviations ; Editors' Note ; Introduction ; Chapter 1. Charity Professionals: Ambivalent Generosity and the New Business of Philanthropy ; Chapter 2. Neither Public Nor Private: Telethons in the U.S. Health and Welfare System ; Chapter 3. The Hidden Politics of Telethons: Where Volunteerism, Government, and Business Meet ; Chapter 4. "They've Got a Good Thing with Us and We've Got a Good Thing with Them": ; Telethons and Cause-Related Marketing ; Chapter 5. Givers and Takers: Conspicuous Contribution and a Distinctly American Moral Community ; Chapter 6. Dignity Thieves: Greed, Generosity, and Objects of Charity ; Chapter 7. Suffering as Spectacle: Pity, Pathos, and Ideology ; Chapter 8 "Look at Us We're Walking": Cure-Seekers, Invalids and Overcomers ; Chapter 9 American and Un-American Bodies: Searching for Fitness through Technology and Sport ; Chapter 10. Smashing Icons: Gender, Sexuality, and Disability ; Chapter 11. "Heaven's Special Child": The Making of Poster Children ; Chapter 12. Family Burdens: Parents, Children, and Disability ; Chapter 13. Jerry's Kids Grow Up: Disability Rights Activists and Telethons ; Conclusion: The End of Telethons and Challenges for Disability Rights ; Afterword ; Notes

Longmore's book wears its intelligence in its incisive commentary and concepts. Students and scholars could learn a lot from this book, including how to write about complex ideas in clear, readable prose. The book manages to do all this in thirteen tightly written chapters, plus introduction and conclusion ... While concise, the book takes no shortcuts, being heavily or even exhaustively evidenced ... Longmore's book is powerful and persuasive. It's also a great pleasure to read, in the way that watching a master thinker is pleasurable. He thinks with material in impressive ways that seem effortless ... Scholars with other interests would no doubt see much else in Longmore's book related to their interests, as there is a great deal in this fine book. We should all be grateful that Longmore wrote Telethons and that his colleagues did the work to make sure we could read it.