Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An Empathetic Look At the Plight of Early 20th Century Poverty-Stricken Immigrants
Hull House founder and Nobel Peace Prize winner Jane Addams spent twenty years working with the poverty-stricken immigrant poor in Chicago.She writes here with understated passion and unqualified empathy for their plight.

Anyone who wants to know why we have a fourty hour work should read this book.Addams writes about the desirablity of factory work over household work for young women, due both to the lack of isolation and the relatively short working hours, "only" from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., six days a week.

Anyone who wants to know why we minimum wage laws, social security disability laws, age discrimination laws, social security laws, welfare laws, etc. should read this book.Addams writes about people earning pennies an hour, having their peak earning years in their twenties, being disabled in their thirties, and being dependent on children for financial support.The children, in turn had their education stop before high school so they can support their families.

Anyone who wants to know why governments spend so much money on education should read this book.Addams writes about children having a choose limited to factory employment or household service, with the more intellectually oriented being doomed to spend a lifetime haunting public libraries and public lectures, but having virtually no chance of escaping the circumstance of their birth.

Anyone who wants to know why poverty-stricken people are suspicious of political reform movements should read this book.Addams writes about the major efforts Chicago's political powerhouses made to help individual poverty-stricken people, and the irrelevance of wisdom advocating personal savings to people who could not pay for food for their family, or of wisdom urging them to stay out of taverns when they were a great source of personal help and friendship.

One hundred and five years after Addams wrote this book, the United States is a far better place to live than it was then.But our country's improvements, urged by great progressive leaders like Addams, are under relentless right-wing assaults today.This book is extremely relevant to our country's future, if our future is going to continue to better than our past.

The introduction of Charlene Haddock Seigfried, the past president of the Society for the Advancement of American philosophy, adds a great deal to this work, as it places Addams and her fellow reformers into the context of both their times and the prevailing systems of thought.

Addams saw democracy as a way of life, and not just a series of electoral choices.She sought a major expansion of municipal services, to both improve the living standards of the desperately poor and to wean them away from dependence on corrupt political machines.She advocated the existence of "A reformer who really knew the people and their great human needs, who believed it was the business of government to serve them, and who further recognized the educative power of a sense of responsibility...."

Addams addresses this book to the philanthropic community which provided the base of her financial support.She clearly saw them as providing seed money for demonstration projects to create greater governmental and societal commitment.

It is fashionable in some quarters to say that nothing has been done and nothing can be done to improve the plight of the poverty-stricken.Anyone who believes that, or must deal with others who believe that, should read and quote liberally from this book. ... Read more

Product Description
dramatic version of life of Jane Addams ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document, covering the life and work of (Laura) Jane Addams, is an entry from Contemporary Authors, a reference volume published by Thompson Gale. The length of the entry is 1818 words. The page length listed above is based on a typical 300-word page. Although the exact content of each entry from this volume can vary, typical entries include the following information:

• Place and date of birth and death (if deceased)
• Family members
• Education
• Professional associations and honors
• Employment
• Writings, including books and periodicals
• A description of the author's work
• References to further readings about the author

Book Description
This unique collection of writings by the great social reformer-edited by the author of Jane Addams and the Dream of American Democracy-reveals the essential Jane Addams.

Jane Addams was a prolific and elegant writer. Her twelve books consist largely of published essays, but to appreciate her life work one must also read her previously uncollected speeches and editorials. This artfully compiled collection begins with Addams's youthful Junior Class Oration on women as "Breadgivers," features thoughtful examinations of topics as diverse as "Tolstoy and Gandhi" and "The Public School and the Immigrant Child," and even includes popular essays on "The Subtle Problems of Charity," from The Atlantic Monthly, and "Need a Woman Over Fifty Feel Old?" from Ladies' Home Journal. Along with the writings themselves, Elshtain's insightful commentary offers powerful evidence of Addams's remarkable ability to frame social problems in an ethical context, her unwillingness to succumb to ideological dogma, her political courage, and her lifelong devotion to civic and moral life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

good job keep up the good work
Selected Papers of Jane Addams Volume 1, Preparing to lead 1860-81,edited by Mary Bryan, Barbara Blair and Maree De Angury is published by University of Illinois Press.It is 650 pages, has 47 illustrations (including a map of Mill Street, Cedarville as of 1875 by Ronald Beam).It has documents for the time in question including letters, school essays, school speeches and other documents concerning Jane Addams.

The earliest document is a letter from Jane at age 8 to her sister, Alice, dated 1868. It reads in part:

Dear Sister Alice,
As I take my pen in hand to let you know that I am wel at pressent hopin that you are the same.

Yes, Jane at age 8 was a poor speller. The reproduced report cards shows Jane got a 59 in spelling at age 5. There is hope for the bad spellers.

Volume 1 ends with her Valedictorian address given to Rockford Female Seminary school in June, 1881.That speech starts:

To the Citizens of Rockford:
In a quiet part of your busy city for four years a class of girls have lived, studied some, planned and dreamed much more, and to all appearances have added nothing to the society or working force of your citizens.


The documents cover only 354 pages of the book. The first 81 pages of the book include acknowledgments of 8 pages, an introduction of 20 pages, and 3 pages on editorial method. The bibliography is40 pages and is very comprehensive. The remainder of the book contains biographical profiles. They are well done and include Addams family members and close associates such as Ellen Star.

Mary Bryan, the majoreditor, also did the microfilm edition of the Jane Addams papers that was published a few years back.

Thisbook is a delight.Thosewho follow the life of Jane Addams will love this book.It has the content of actual letters and writings of Jane Addams from age eight on.They are fun and educational to read as the reader follows the development of Jane from child to young adult. There are good photos to help move the pages.The serious student of Jane Addams will find this volume a joy, with few defects, and a great read. ... Read more

Book Description
Books about Jane Addams--founder of Hull House, social reformer, suffragist, pacifist, and one of the most greatly admired women in American history--come and go, but Allen Davis's account of her life, work, and ideas remains the standard biography. Davis has written not only the best study of Jane Addams, but perhaps the best biography of any great American woman. --William L. O'Neill. With a new Introduction by the author. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

An outstanding, detailed, informative biography.
This truly outstanding and detailed biography of Jane Addams surveys the founder of Hull House, a social reformer who was one of the most admired women in American history. American Heroine recounts her life, work andideas, providing chapters which go into far more depth and detail than mostreviews of her life, probing the philosophy behind her works and theatmosphere of her times.

One of the Best Book I Ever Read
Jane Addams was a remarkable woman.This book is the best biography written of her life. She was a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in her later life.Her liberal views of American society are covered thoroughly by thisauthor in his chapters of her early work at Hull House, and her later workfor world peace.A must read book for every woman, because Jane Addams wastruly an American woman. ... Read more

Book Description
Jane Addams is best known as the founder of Hull-House, one of this country's first settlement houses, in the immigrant heart of late Victorian Chicago. This biography chronicles her privileged childhood in rural Illinois, her thirst for a first-class education, and her search for purpose and self-fulfillment, although constrained by notions of the proper role for females. It chronicles Addams' tireless work to better the lives of urban immigrants and her growing national and international role in social reform. The narrative of her family travails, deep friendships, reading, writing, travels, beliefs, and accolades and changing public perception of her causes is consummately woven with historical context of her times--from the Civil War Era to the Great Depression. The range of Addams' concerns, of her active social and political involvement, is astonishing. She belonged to and helped to found many organizations, including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. She championed women's suffrage and equality and believed in their moral strength in reform. At one point, she was cast in the role of middle class secular saint, and she became the most honored woman in the United States. As the United States entered World War I and later, Addams was called a dangerous radical and unchristian scoundrel and vilified for her outspoken pacifism and championing of free speech, human rights, and other progressive causes and groups. Her profound contributions to society began to be recognized again in the 1960s, and this biography reveals her greatness to a new generation. ... Read more