In American history, few tragedies have been as consequential—and as enduringly misunderstood—as the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911. Long remembered as a turning point in the struggle for labor protections, Fire in the Heart of the City: The Triangle Shirtwaist Tragedy and the Origins of Modern Charity (NYU Press, 2026) shows how the fire also helped transform another cornerstone of modern American life: the rise of modern charity.

Set in early twentieth-century New York, the book tells the extraordinary story of what happened when a catastrophic fire in Greenwich Village threw Adolph Ochs, the ambitious new publisher of the New York Times, and Rose Schneiderman, a defiant young labor organizer, into a momentous struggle over who should organize the city’s response: a rising charity sector led by wealthy financiers and civic elites, or the reform-minded unions and activists of Lower Manhattan.

Drawing on newly released archival documents, interviews with the descendants of Times publisher Adolph Ochs and New York labor organizers, previously confidential reports, and long-overlooked private diaries and correspondence, David Conrad-Pérez offers a striking new account of the disaster and its aftermath. He shows how a handful of charities on the brink of irrelevance were suddenly recast as New York’s best answer to the social and economic conditions the fire laid bare—a watershed moment in the rise of modern charity and elite authority over social welfare in the United States.

This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.

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Conceived in 1950, the Colombo Plan for Co-operative Development in South and Southeast Asia was a unique experiment in foreign relations. Meeting annually across what we now know as the 'Indo-Pacific', talented administrators facilitated foreign aid provision, and promoted development fuelled state-making, internationalism and experimental regionalism across postwar Asia. 

In The Colombo Plan: Development Internationalism in Cold War Asia (Cambridge UP, 2025), Professor David Lowe argues that this new setting and dynamic international cast created an unusually productive diplomatic environment of development internationalism. The Colombo Plan did not escape power politics or Cold War divisions. However, it did run according to its own rhythm, and, unlike other experiments, it endured, continuing today in much reduced form.

This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.

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Jen Ford Reedy has served as President of the Minnesota-based Bush Foundation since 2012. In her perennially popular Philanthropy 101 classes, Reedy tells her students: Everyone is a beginner when they join a foundation. Foundation board and staff members come from a variety of professional backgrounds and bring their talents and skills into the field. But even if you’ve been successful in other sectors, you must adapt your skills to be effective in the world of philanthropy.

Please Be Good at Philanthropy: An Introduction to Grantmaking Strategy and Practice (Disruption Books, 2026) explains how to do just that. Reedy lays out five truths of philanthropic strategy that will help you shift to a philanthropic mindset. Then she dives into the basic steps of good foundation practice that will truly benefit the people and organizations you serve.

Clear examples and reflective questions help new foundation board and staff members understand their organizations’ purposes and thoughtfully manage the risks and tradeoffs in their organizations’ approaches. Each chapter includes stories of both successes and failures that show philanthropic practice in action and offer industry newcomers insight into what has worked for other foundations.

Like a trusted mentor who helps you through your first months in a new job, Reedy imparts endlessly useful advice to help you get good at doing good.

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