Rockefeller Philanthropy and Modern Biomedicine : International

Philanthropic and Nonprofit Studies

by William H. Schneider (Editor)

The eight case studies in this edited volume show in detail how the Rockefeller Foundation's gifts affected medical research, education, and public health in Europe, the Soviet Union, and China between World War I and the Cold War. Despite the Foundation's goal to help countries with established medical research programs, major advances were achieved in several countries that did not have a notable history in medical research. In other circumstances, however, the Rockefeller Foundation was confronted with local cultural and political imperatives that reshaped or weakened its objectives. Rockefeller Philanthropy and Modern Biomedicine offers important lessons regarding the situations in which international philanthropy is likely to be most effective.

Genres: Music, History, Nonfiction

288 pages, Hardcover

First published March 22, 1999

Reviews

[Jeff Crompton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not sure why I had never read this before now, since I'm an aficionado of early jazz. But I recently found myself near Richmond, Indiana, home of Gennett Records, made the 25-mile side trip, and visited the shell of the only building left of the once-mighty Starr Piano/Gennett Records empire.

Gennett recorded some extemely "important" (and wonderful) music in the 1920s - King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, Bix Beiderbecke's Wolverine Orchestra, The New Orleans Rhythm Kings, Jelly Roll Morton. I didn't realize until reading Kennedy's book, however, that they were also instrumental (no pun intended) in breaking the shared monopoly that Victor and Columbia had on the record industry. And I didn't realize the extent to which, after the glory days of Gennett's early jazz recordings, they concentrated on early country music, much of it issued on their discount Champion label.

Kennedy's book is very thorough and well researched, especially considering that in later years the Gennett family was not at all interested in talking to interviewers about their time in the record business. The writing is utilitarian rather than elegant, but it gets the job done.

And reading this book has put me in the mood to spin some of my original blue-label Gennett 78 RPM records.