Intellectual Philanthropists. The seduction of the masses by Aurélie Vialette

Historian Jo Labanyi (NYU) introduces author Aurélie Vialette (Stony Brook University) and talks about her recent book on the history of philanthropy and social movements in 19th and 20th century Spain.

Through detailed studies of popular music, collective readings, dramas, working-class manuals and fiction, Vialette reveals how depictions of urban philanthropic activities can inform our understanding of interactions in the economic, cultural, religious, and educational spheres, class power dynamics, and gender roles in urban Spanish society.

Intellectual philanthropy is the use of philanthropic platforms by intellectuals to deploy cultural and educational structures in which workers could acquire a cultural capital constructed and organized by the philanthropists. Vialette argues that intellectual philanthropy appeared as a reaction to the feared political and cultural organization of the working class.