Table of Contents

Introduction: Ireland in the Eighteenth Century: The Case for Improvement
'The Worst in Christendom': The Church of Ireland and Improvement
Education and Charity: The Incorporated Society for Promoting English Protestant Schools in Ireland
To Cure and Relieve: Voluntary Hospitals in Eighteenth-Century Dublin
Improvement as Philanthropy: The Dublin Society
'The Benevolent Sympathies of the Female Heart': Women, Improvement, and the Work of the Lady Arbella Denny
National and Local Government and Improvement
Conclusion: Philanthropy and Improvement in the Eighteenth-Century and Beyond

Reviews

[An] excellent, multi-layered study of philanthropic movements.
*AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF IRISH STUDIES*

A useful and engaging attempt to develop an interpretation that embraces the improving and charitable impulses of the 18th century.
*REVIEWS IN HISTORY*