Review of American Generosity: Who Gives and Why by Patricia Snell Herzog and Heather E. Price

Excerpt: In American Generosity, sociologists Patricia Herzog and Heather Price provide comprehensive, detailed, and realistic portraits of generosity among American adults. The research in this book was conducted as part of the University of Notre Dame’s Science of Generosity Initiative. In an earlier book, Christian Smith and Hilary Davidson described the paradox of generosity in which few Americans generously give despite the many benefits that generosity brings back to the giver. American Generosity sheds some light on why this paradox exists, asking: Who gives, who does not give, and why do some people give more than others