@article{10.4159/harvard.9780674067929,
      recid = {1403985},
      author = {Terpstra, Nicholas.},
      title = {Cultures of charity women, politics, and the reform of  poor relief in Renaissance Italy / [electronic resource] :},
      publisher = {Harvard University Press,},
      address = {Cambridge, Mass. :},
      number = {10.4159/harvard.9780674067929},
      pages = {1 online resource (x, 379 p.) :},
      year = {2013},
      abstract = {Renaissance Italians pioneered radical changes in ways of  helping the poor, including orphanages, workhouses,  pawnshops, and women's shelters. Nicholas Terpstra shows  that gender was the key factor driving innovation. Most of  the recipients of charity were women. The most creative new  plans focused on features of women's poverty like  illegitimate births, hunger, unemployment, and domestic  violence. Signal features of the reforms, from forced labor  to new instruments of saving and lending, were devised  specifically to help young women get a start in life.  Cultures of Charity is the first book to see women's  poverty as the key factor driving changes to poor relief.  These changes generated intense political debates as  proponents of republican democracy challenged more elitist  and authoritarian forms of government emerging at the time.  Should taxes fund poor relief? Could forced labor help  build local industry? Focusing on Bologna, Terpstra looks  at how these fights around politics and gender generated  pioneering forms of poor relief, including early examples  of maternity benefits, unemployment insurance, food stamps,  and credit union savings plans.},
      url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/1403985},
}