Understanding the Cold War: A Historian's Personal Reflections

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Nielsen, who wrote The Big Foundations in 1972, here updates his study of America's 36 largest organized philanthropies. Although the project was funded in part by the MacArthur Foundation, the author has succeeded in remaining objective, for his chapter on the feuding within that organization is the liveliest in the book. Overall, however, his examination of foundations with assets in excess of $250 million is bland; for example, he plays down the much-publicized criticism that the McGeorge Bundy regime caused fiscal damage to the Ford Foundation. Nielsen does fault all these organizations for inattention to problems of war and peace, to the decreasing productivity of U.S. industry and to an ``underperforming'' U.S. welfare state. Still, his report is unlikely to garner a wide audience. November 26

Library Journal

Golden Donors tells the stories of the nation's 36 largest private foundations, which have a vast influence on private philanthropy in the United States. For each foundation, an account of the donor's life (and personality), the foundation's management, and the development of its philosophies and program is given. A section on the MacArthur Foundation, one of America's newest and largest, is replete with tales of the founder's eccentricities and infighting among the board of directors. Incidentally, the MacArthur Foundation provided a grant to the author for the writing of Golden Donors. Nielsen's wide-open approach makes these inside stories interesting reading for those with some knowledge of private foundations and philanthropy in the United States. Sybil B. McShane, Dept. of Libraries, Montpelier, Vt.