The World Of Rotary

The Rotary Book of Readings collects over 175 quotations exploring the goals and values of this preeminent humanitarian organization. In its pages you will discover the core principles embodied by Rotary International, including volunteerism, leadership, community, and peace, all through these inspirational quotes—many from noted members of Rotary International. The Rotary Book of Readings is an excellent resource for Rotarians to help inspire their weekly meetings, to instill Rotarian values in new members, to use a gift for guest speakers, for local RYLA, Rotary student exchange and other youth programs, as a membership recruitment aid, and much more. Developed by the members of the Rotary Club of Hobart, New York, sales of The Rotary Book of Readings help support projects throughout the world. Since its founding in 1905, Rotary International has been one of the leading humanitarian and volunteer outreach organizations in the United States. Over 1 million members strong, their commitment to the ideals of human rights and improving life for everyone has had an enormous impact, touching the lives of countless people. And through it all, Rotary International has followed the direction of their guiding principles, core values that have served as the cornerstone of Rotary International’s global mission. The primary goal of Rotary International is to bring together like-minded people to provide humanitarian services and help build goodwill and peace in the world. Explore their mission like never before in The Rotary Book of Readings, and help to make the world a better place—one step at a time.

A new history of Rotary International shows how the organization reinforced capitalist values and cultural practices at home and tried to remake the world in the idealized image of Main Street America. Rotary International was born in Chicago in 1905. By the time World War II was over, the organization had made good on its promise to “girdle the globe.” Rotary International and the Selling of American Capitalism explores the meteoric rise of a local service club that brought missionary zeal to the spread of American-style economics and civic ideals. Brendan Goff traces Rotary’s ideological roots to the business progressivism and cultural internationalism of the United States in the early twentieth century. The key idea was that community service was intrinsic to a capitalist way of life. The tone of “service above self” was often religious, but, as Rotary looked abroad, it embraced Woodrow Wilson’s secular message of collective security and international cooperation: civic internationalism was the businessman’s version of the Christian imperial civilizing mission, performed outside the state apparatus. The target of this mission was both domestic and global. The Rotarian, the organization’s publication, encouraged Americans to see the world as friendly to Main Street values, and Rotary worked with US corporations to export those values. Case studies of Rotary activities in Tokyo and Havana show the group paving the way for encroachments of US power—economic, political, and cultural—during the interwar years. Rotary’s evangelism on behalf of market-friendly philanthropy and volunteerism reflected a genuine belief in peacemaking through the world’s “parliament of businessmen.” But, as Goff makes clear, Rotary also reinforced American power and interests, demonstrating the tension at the core of US-led internationalism.

Outlines the scope and history of Rotary.

A compilation of short, easy-to-read, informative articles about Rotary history and programs. Originated as a series of articles written by 1992-93 RI President Cliff Dochterman for his Rotary club's weekly bulletin.

History of The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International in honor of its centennial