Americans have never been ones to stay home; whether for economic, political, or religious reasons, we've been trying to remake the world in our own image for the better part of two centuries. So it's not surprising that American foundations also have been active around the globe for the better part of a century in pursuit of their quintessentially American missions. Indeed, in 2005 nearly one of out of every ten foundation dollars — an estimated $3.8 billion, more than twice the total of a decade ago — was spent abroad. And that number will get much bigger as a large portion of Warren Buffett's fortune is turned over (in annual installments) to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation — by far the most internationally active of all U.S. foundations.

And yet, as Joseph C. Kiger argues in Philanthropists and Foundation Globalization, the breadth and depth of American philanthropy abroad is seldom appreciated, often misunderstood, and frequently hamstrung by the historical tension that exists between private initiative and the national interest, both real and perceived. Even as the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace approaches its centennial, it is striking to note how few of our fellow citizens truly comprehend the scope and importance of American philanthropy in a global context.

Indeed, much as Americans are reluctant to see their tax dollars sent abroad in the form of international aid, so too are they suspicious of foundation dollars being spent on foreign soil in pursuit of agendas they may disagree with or simply do not understand. That's a problem which Kiger, an historian and senior researcher at the Croft Institute for International Studies at the University of Mississippi, would like to fix — not least, he argues, because the general lack of public knowledge about international giving has led to periodic bouts of heightened congressional scrutiny of foundations. In his view, congressional scrutiny of foundations in the 1950s and '60s was as much about perceived foreign entanglements and the alleged anti-American activities of American foundations as it was about abuses of the public trust — a perception, Kiger notes, that is widespread among the general public even today, and one that prevents foundations from more effectively pursuing their goals.

For his part, Kiger wants Americans to know that many of the individual philanthropists who have established major foundations and set their sights on making the world a better place are much like other Americans: optimistic, generous, and ennobled by a sense of doing right. To that end, he provides, in chronological order, a series of some two dozen biographical-historical profiles of founding philanthropists who have engaged in international giving over the past hundred years. If this "great man" approach seems a bit old-fashioned, reading about the likes of Andrew Carnegie, the Rockefellers, Simon Guggenheim, Charles Stewart Mott, W.H. Kellogg, Andrew Mellon, John D. MacArthur, Edsel Ford, George Soros, Ted Turner, Bill Gates, and others creates the impression that they were — and in a few cases still are — deeply engaged in understanding the problems of their day and committed to seeking solutions to those problems.

Along the way, Kiger offers a strong illustration of how international giving frequently is situated at the nexus of foreign policy, private initiative, and popular opinion — and how all three often combine to influence and constrain grantmaking abroad. In Kiger's judgment, the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union provided the U.S. government, American foundations, and the public with a golden opportunity to encourage and facilitate the integration of former communist-bloc countries into the community of liberal Western-style democracies. And, indeed, many foundations rushed to fill the vacuum created by those extraordinary events — only to abandon their hopes a few years later as the challenges confronting Eastern European countries and the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union dropped out of the news cycle and ceased to command the attention of the American public. (George Soros' Open Society Institute and the Ford and MacArthur foundations were notable exceptions to the trend.)

So, too, we might ask how long American foundations working abroad today can remain unfettered by national security interests and other public policy concerns? Should foundations be allowed to support agricultural projects in Venezuela, the construction of schools in the Gaza Strip, or condom distribution programs in Africa if those projects run counter to the foreign policy objectives of the administration in power? How much attention, if any, should foundations pay to public opinion in such cases? And are foundations prepared to respond to the next (and inevitable) round of congressional scrutiny? (One word of caution Kiger draws from his reading of the twentieth century is that in the twenty-first American foundations intent on extending their reach globally must take extra pains to demonstrate their effectiveness and educate the public about their motives and practices, both at home and abroad.)

If foundations are to avoid these questions, Kiger argues that their international activities will need to become a part of the conversation whenever philanthropy is the topic of discussion. To that end, he argues for the creation and dissemination of more in-depth qualitative studies exploring the purposes, methodologies, and outcomes achieved by American foundations working abroad, as well as more information about the people actually doing the grantmaking. Much the same can be said of Americans and the American education system; despite the growing interconnectedness of the global village and their own healthy sense of exceptionalism, Americans remain shockingly ignorant of the rest of the world. Not surprisingly, Kiger argues that the more the public knows about the world in general, the more likely it is to understand the value of and support the global activities of American foundations.

Missing from his analysis is any mention of the burgeoning microcredit revolution, the role of individual private giving (in the form of guest-worker remittances and online giving platforms such as Kiva) in international development, and the role of NGOs and faith-based humanitarian organizations in shaping the perception of American foundations abroad. But that's a minor complaint. At just under two hundred pages, Kiger's book is a starting point — and a very good one — to this complex and increasingly important subject.