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The Ford Foundation and the Reinvention of American Liberalism, 1968-2000 https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.110682 Collings-Wells, Samuel 0000000218680345 Preston, Andrew This dissertation examines how the Ford Foundation reinvented American liberalism after 1968. As the largest philanthropic organization in the United States, Ford played a hitherto under-appreciated role in reshaping liberal policy toward poverty, crime, and racial inequality. This dissertation shows how the Ford Foundation, responding to growing concerns about a conservative ‘white backlash’, embarked on a self-conscious effort to reinvent liberal policymaking toward crime and urban poverty. Through funding a network of think tanks, community groups, and financial intermediaries, the Ford Foundation pioneered a new liberal strategy to fight poverty and crime, made up of two key components: Firstly, a commitment to ‘broken windows’ policing - an aggressive strategy of law- enforcement that argued the police should focus their attention on low-level ‘disorder’. And secondly, an embrace of public-private partnerships to revive distressed communities through a process of community development. While most histories of post-1960s liberalism have focused on Congress or the Presidency, this dissertation argues that in order to understand the evolution of American liberalism after 1968, we must shift our attention to the nonprofit sector of philanthropic foundations and community groups. University of Cambridge 2023-09-17 Thesis Doctoral Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) eng https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/371521 https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/14e4747f-56e6-457b-a1dd-48422520c404/download 289a76c2fbc13e26c362bb608973e484 https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/641da7b0-6827-44b6-ae69-6160a3cf0cb4/download 87eda9de84448d1f82354d60eee3eb5f https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/ liberalism United States philanthropy policing criminal justice urban studies history