Product Description
In this landmark biography, Jane Addams becomes America's most admiredand most hated woman—and wins the Nobel Peace Prize.Jane Addams (1860-1935) was a leading statesperson in an era when few imagined such possibilities for women. In this fresh interpretation, the first full biography of Addams in nearly forty years, Louise W. Knight shows Addams's boldness, creativity, and tenacity as she sought ways to put the ideals of democracy into action. Starting in Chicago as a co-founder of the nation's first settlement house, Hull House—a community center where people of all classes and ethnicities could gather—Addams became a grassroots organizer and a partner of trade unionists, women, immigrants, and African Americans seeking social justice. In time she emerged as a progressive political force; an advocate for women's suffrage; an advisor to presidents; a co-founder of civil rights organizations, including the NAACP; and a leader for international peace. Written as a fast-paced narrative, Jane Addams traces how one woman worked with others to make a difference in the world. 32 black-and-white illustrations ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Excellent history & insightful
Louise Knight's is a highly readable, very well-written book that captures in 200 pages the essence and scope of one of the greatest women the United States has ever produced: Jane Addams.Not only does one learn about the historical context in which Addams lived (and indeed, which she helped shape) from the late 19th to the early 20th centuries around labor reform, women's suffrage, immigration, peace, social philosophy, and new bottom-up tactics in effecting political change, but Knight provides intimate insights into the evolution of the upper-class-bred Addams into a woman of the people and a Nobel Peace Prize winner.Knight takes nothing Addams said or did at face value, providing the historian's needed "detective work" to ferret out the whys and wherefores of Addams' actions.

To provide but two of many examples, Knight notes that in a speech Addams gave in 1896 following the violent Pullman strike, Addams used the word "power" in what was for her a new context, that of "Pullman's 'power' to build the town of Pullman and... his failture to recognize the legitimacy" of his own workers'/tenants' demands.Knight: "'Power' was a word Addams had previously used to refer to character.Growing up, she had dreamed of achieving that kind of personal power, but she had no conscious experience with other kinds of power.Sheltered within her family, she had not seen the power the family's wealth gave it economically and socially, nor seen the other kinds of power her father's influence as a politican created.She lived on the safe side of impersonal power, oblivious and innocent.Why did she see it now?"With this question, Knight takes the inquiry (and the reader) even further, finding clues in a related speech Addams delivered where Addams experienced a "moment of blinding insight" in which she recognized, through the lens of examining the oppression of women, that social hierarchy of any kind is the source of all conflict. She quotes Addams as describing women, in a dramatic metaphor, as "chained down by a military code," leading her down the path of realizing that hierarchy in action -- not just men over women, but boss over worker, native born over immigrant, war lord over civilian -- is wrong. (See pp. 94-96).Viewed in this way, it becomes easy for the reader to understand how it was that Addams always seemed so new and contemporary.She never allowed herself to become a prisoner of dogma and formality.

Knight provides the same sort of probing analysis of Addams' thought and action in discussing a book Addams wrote toward the end of her life, "The Excellent Becomes the Permanent," a collection of speeches Addams gave at memorial services. (See pp. 258-9) Knight: "[Addams] said in her introduction that she intended the book to answer a question she was often asked: Did she believe in life after death?... She never actually answered the question in the book..." However, "her book title gave her real answer: Achieving moral excellence was the path to living eternally.... The addresses in 'Excellent' capture, for the most part, the way each person being memoralized had lived with just that kind of bold passion."

One might say by extension that Addams herself lived with "bold passion."Knight writes in this segment that Addams "liked to treat herself as a mystery to be studied."Louise Knight has expertly unravelled the "mystery" that is Addams by delving into the motivations and evolved thought processes that led to Addams' very brave, often unpopular actions.

Jane Addams - The "Spirit" of Progessive Values
I enjoyed this book so much I feel compelled to do a review. There is nothing about Jane Addams upbringing that would predict her leadership role in women's sufferage, civil rights, an advocate for child labor laws and education and international peace. Her family was well-to-do, but not robber-baron wealthy, yet she founded Hull House with her own funds, thereafter supporting herself from writing and speaking engagements. I found her internal philosophical reckoning to be compelling. She sought philosophical/ethical underpinnings to reconcile herself to what she was often already doing or advocating, yet somewhat unusual for that era, her compulsion toward public service was not based in personal religious beliefs.

While the book paints a full picture of her range of intellectual and advocacy pursuits, it doesn't shy away from her failings. For an egregious example, in 1899, a rash of lynchings occurred across the country and not just in the South. Perhaps because of a lack of personal knowledge, perhaps because of her own prejudices, her writings and advocacy were intended for white Southerners as an audience and took a tone of concern about the lack of due process of the mob, not the lynching itself or the torture, inequality and innocent victims of lynching. In the same year, her protests regarding the Filipino-American war did not take on the outdated tenents of "benevolent assimulation."

Louise Knight has woven the story of this complex, intelligent woman with her internal ethical debates into a highly readable book that presents Addams and her advocacy within the frame of her time's events. She met and corresponded with Presidents, intellectuals and leaders of her day, as well those emigrants participating in Hull House resources. A really interesting, engaging book I enjoyed.

Jane Addams: Progressive!!!
Last night I listened to Bill O'Reilly denigrate "Progressive Values" on Fox News. But if YOU are the least bit confused by the term "Progressive Values," if you wonder if YOU want to be called "a Progressive" yourself, then this really is the book for you!

Me, I have absolutely no doubt in my mind how Jane Addams would vote in November if she were here to do so in person.

Quoted from the Postscript: "On the whole, history confirmed that the fears of conservatives were unfounded.The end of child labor, which Congress banned in 1938, did not force major industries out of business; women's ability to vote did not destroy the family; federal old-age pensions, the federal minimum wage, and state unemployment insurance did not destroy the American capitalist system... On the other hand, seventy-five years after her death, many of the problems worked on by Addams and other reformers, of both genders and of every class and race, remain unfinished..."

Enthusiasm gap???Not if YOU read THIS book!!! ... Read more

Product 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

Product Description
This major new interpretive biography--by one of America's foremost public intellectuals--eloquently examines Jane Addams's cultural and political influence on her time and ours.

In this eagerly anticipated interpretation of the life and work of quintessential "public intellectual" Jane Addams (1860-1935), Jean Bethke Elshtain explores Addams's legacy thematically and chronologically, recounting her embrace of "social feminism," her challenge to the usual cleavage between "conservative" and "liberal," and the growth of Chicago's famed Hull House into a thriving cultural and intellectual center. Jane Addams and the Dream of American Democracy is a rich and revealing portrait of one of the most extraordinary figures in American history.Amazon.com Review
Today Jane Addams is one of those people whose name "rings a bell," writes biographer Jean Bethke Elshtain. At the time of her death in 1935, however, she was more than the answer to a trivia question--she was "America's best-known and most widely hailed female public figure." Addams had recently won the Nobel Peace Prize and was famous for her social work as the founder of Hull-House in Chicago. Elshtain's innovation is to treat Addams like the protofeminist intellectual she was, a thinker whose "vision of generosity and hopefulness ... made the American democracy more decent and more welcoming today than it would otherwise be." Hull-House, for instance, was not merely a poorhouse for immigrants struggling to become citizens; it was a major cultural center that hosted speeches and debates. Because of the many books Addams wrote (including the classic Twenty Years at Hull-House) and her political activism, "her name is attached to every major social reform between 1890 and 1925," writes Elshtain. Addams has deserved a book of this caliber for quite some time; readers drawn to her are fortunate that an intellectual figure of Elshtain's stature took up the project. As the author says of her subject nearthe end of Jane Addams and the Dream of American Democracy: "Such a tremendous force." --John Miller ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

a deep, analytical biography
This ia a rather deep, psycho-analytical and intellectual biography of Jane Addams, a great visionary, tireless ball of energy, and one of the most admirable humanitarians of our time.It probes into Jane's upbringing and how her early experiences contributed to her thoughts on society and her motives.The author interviewed people who knew Jane, went to places she lived, and studied the archives of Hull House.All statements are well documented with footnotes in the back.I would recommend this book for adults instead of teenage readers, because it is so intellectually deep.Teenagers should choose a simpler book.

good book about a good person
This book is a breath of truthful air in recent history writing.Gone are the speculations and unsupported theories.Gone also is the garbage of modern history departments. The author deals with the recent speculation about Jane Addams.She does not ignore it.It is nice to find a book that deals intelligently with the subject.It is also nice to see that the author has carefully researched her subject.Historians of today are doing the world a great disservice. But the cultural wars will continue.Facts, provable facts, do matter in the end. The author talked to people who knew Jane Addams. In the First World War, Jane Addams was closely watched by various intelligence agencies of the federal government and of local government.If there was dirt to be picked up, these vacuum cleaners of that subject would have found it and published it. The reports of these agencies are available on microfilm in the Jane Addams Papers published by University Microfilms.

This book is 329 pages long.It has 63 pages of notes, 9 pages of index, and 10 pages of well selected photos.

It is a good book, about a good person.Jane will be long remembered for the "quality of her thinking, for her rightness as an interpreter of individuals to themselves and of social groups one to another."So wrote her first biographer, James Linn. I think this book continues that image of Jane Addams. ... Read more

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An American Hero
This is a book about a woman who made a difference. It is also the story of a woman's triumph over Victorian ideas about a woman's place and over personal uncrtainties. Jane Addams became a leading humanitarian and spokesperson for women but she also led struggles which enhanced the notion of democracy in this country and the world. Ms. Addams did not see democracy as neoconservatives seeit today. She was not a fighter for capitalism or Republican values but rather for participation and inclusion. She was also a crusader for world peace.

Jane Addams and her colleagues were not like 21st century Americans. She was practically humorless and was moved by moral imperatives almost unknown to us. However,she, aside from being the "real thing", was famous for her kindness to immigrants and children.

This book deals with her early life and her humanitarian efforts in the United States. It discusses the founding of Hull House, one of the first settlement houses in this country, and relates the operation of Hull House to the awakening of Addams' interest in many important causes.

The book is a good read for those who are interested in women's history or in the history of reform and, indeed, radicalism in this country (for she was a radical). It is well researched and written and does not try to turn Addams into a midwestern Mother Teresa. ... Read more

Product Description
Presents the life of the woman whose devotion to social work led to her establishing Hull House in Chicago and who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Great Quick Read
Great quick read when someone needs or wants to know more than what the textbooks teach!

Jane Addams: Pioneer Social Worker Review
This book was an easy read. It had lots of great pictures of Jane and her contributions.There was lots of information about her life and her contributions to the community. Her constent desire to help those in need was remarkable! ... Read more

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I suppose all the children who were born about the time of the Civil War have recollections quite unlike those of the children who are living now. Although I was but four and a half years old when Lincoln died, I distinctly remember the day when I found on our two white gateposts American flags companioned with black.Amazon.com Review
While on a trip to East London in 1883, Jane Addams witnessed a distressing scene late one night: masses of poor people were bidding on rotten vegetables that were unsalable anywhere else.

Their pale faces were dominated by that most unlovely of human expressions, the cunning and shrewdness of the bargain-hunter who starves if he cannot make a successful trade, and yet the final impression was not of ragged, tawdry clothing nor of pinched and sallow faces, but of myriads of hands, empty, pathetic, nerveless, and workworn, showing white in the uncertain light of the street, and clutching forward for food which was already unfit to eat.

This scene haunted Addams for the next two years as she traveled through Europe, and she hoped to find a way to ease such suffering. Five years later, she visited Toynbee Hall, a London settlement house, and resolved to replicate the experiment in the U.S. On September 18, 1889, Jane Addams and her friend Ellen Starr moved into the second floor of a rundown mansion in Chicago's West Side. From the outset, they imagined Hull-House as a "center for a higher civic and social life" in the industrial districts of the city. Addams, Starr, and several like-minded individuals lived and worked among the poor, establishing (among other things) art classes, discussion groups, cooperatives, a kindergarten, a coffee house, a lending library, and a gymnasium. In a time when many well-to-do Americans were beginning to feel threatened by immigrants, Hull-House embraced them, showed them the true meaning of democracy, and served as a center for philanthropic efforts throughout Chicago.

Hull-House also provided an outlet for the energies of the first generation of female college graduates, who were educated for work yet prevented from doing it. In some respects, however, Addams's impressive work, often hailed by historians as "revolutionary," was nothing of the sort. She embraced the sexual stereotypes of her day, and, though she was clearly an independent woman, soothed public fears by acting primarily in the traditional roles of nurturer and caregiver. Hull-House was a rousing success, and it inspired others to follow in Addams's footsteps.

Though Twenty Years at Hull-House is meant to be an autobiography, it is Hull-House itself that stands in the spotlight. Addams devotes the first third of the book to her upbringing and influences, but the remainder focuses on the organization she built--and the benefits accruing to those who work with the poor as well as to the poor themselves. At times Addams's prose is difficult to follow, but her ideals and her actions are truly inspiring. A classic work of history--and a model for today's would-be philanthropists. --Sunny Delaney ... Read more

Customer Reviews (16)

Spoiled rich kid seeking attention
A well written book but a littany of "look at what I did for the less fortunate" Jane Adams clearly brings out the fact that she was of the upper class and so much better than those she sought to help. Her goal it seems was to bring high society upper middle class values to the poor. She rarely talks about others who had to be involved. If it did not include her she was not interested in reporting. She also failed to show that she actually helped anyone better thier lives. She just crows about how she brought literature and art to the poor masses.

America's Secular Saint
Along with Addams herself, "Twenty Years At Hull-House" inspired generations of US social and political activists.For decades a Hull House sojourn, or at least a visit, was virtually a pilgrimage for all kinds of progressive reformers. Jane Addams came from a conventional Middle American milieu, but was radicalized by seeing the ravages of the Industrial Revolution both in Britain and Chicago.This timeless memoir of the years 1889-1909 documents her wide-ranging concerns, embracing public health, pacifism and feminism as well as philanthropy, working-class education and poverty alleviation.Nationalist hysteria damaged Addams's reputation as a result of her antiwar stance during World War I, but it recovered enough for her to win the 1931 Nobel Peace Prize.Students had mixed views of book and author. To some she is a revelation, but others see her as rather sanctimonious (a fair criticism to some extent).Her prose is accessible but a little archaic now, sometimes appearing flowery or pompous, which deters some readers.While I respect and admire Addams, I waited in vain for the epiphany felt by thousands inspired by her life's work.People who find their own way to "Hull-House" will probably appreciate her more than those required to read her book---but such unsought exposure lies at the heart of liberal education, and brings many rewards.

A true pioneer of social reform!
In 1911 Addams helped found the National Foundation of Settlements and Neighborhood Centers, and she was its first president. She was also a leader in women's suffrage and pacifist movements. In 1915 she helped found the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. She received the 1931 Nobel Peace Prize (shared with American educator Nicholas Murray Butler).

The Hull House could boast a group of about 2,000 people a week. It had facilities including: a night school for adults, kindergarten classes, clubs for older children, a public kitchen, an art gallery, a coffeehouse, a gymnasium, a girls club, a swimming pool, a book bindery, a music school, a drama group, a library, and labor related divisions.

The Hull House also served as a women's institution of sociology and Addams was a friend and colleague to the early men of the Chicago School of Sociology influencing their social thought of the time through her work in applied sociology, which became defined as social work by academic sociologists of the time. Addams did not, however, consider herself a social worker. She co-authored the Hull-House Maps and Papers in 1893 that came to define the interests and methodologies of Chicago Sociology. She worked with George H. Mead on social reform issues including women's rights and the 1910 Garment Workers' Strike. Addams combined the central concepts of symbolic interactionism with the theories of cultural feminism and pragmatism to form her sociological ideas.

Hull HOuse
I am doing a History Fair project on the Hull House. I thought that I would just be quickly skimming over the book, but in fact i really enjoyed it and I ended up reading with a lot of intrest.

Such a strong woman
I enjoy reading about strong women with great vision. I also enjoy this particular period in history, so this was a perfect match for me. I would love to have been part of the Plato club, or study cooking, or sewing, or heard concerts throughout the week. I sometimes think we have so much going on in our lives right now that we don't take the time to slow down and cherish the simple things. This book did that for me. It made me want to study and focus on things.I know we have tons of technology available to us, but I wish we would still discuss philosophy, and I wish more people would read - I mean, really read.Not just the top twenty things out there. But times are different... ... Read more

Product Description
Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A Limited Biography
James Weber Linn's "Jane Addams: A Biography" is the story of the first American woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. The founder of the Settlement House Movement, she was famous for her nonviolent activism and socially progressive policies during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Today she is lauded as an instrumental figure in labor and welfare reform, women's rights, and activism for peace.

In his preface, James Weber Linn clearly explains that he intends his biography of Jane Addams to be simply the story of her life as opposed to an interpretation of her character and motivations. The value of his work is the authority and knowledge with which he writes Jane's story. Jane was his aunt, enabling him to draw on his personal relationship with her, an acquaintance of nearly 60 years, as well as to utilize all of the manuscripts, letters, and records that she passed on to him in her will. Moreover, according to Linn, Jane read, edited, and annotated the first eight chapters of the biography. This serves to authenticate the content of the biography, lending it an air of truth and honesty. However, Linn's relationship with Jane also indicates a bias in the writing of the biography that colors the presentation of the facts.

This biography is incredibly detailed, providing excellent descriptions of Jane's life and experiences. For anyone interested in studying Jane Addams or learning more about her work and accomplishments, I would certainly recommend this book as an excellent, reliable first source of information. However, Linn's writing style is somewhat dry, rambling, and tends to laud Jane slightly too often. I would caution the reader to perhaps balance this biography of Jane with a slightly more critical and less biased account of her life, as Linn clearly felt unmitigated admiration for his aunt. Additionally, because the book was published in the year of Jane's death, it does not have the advantage of retrospect or historical perspective. A more modern biography of Jane Addams would be able to convey to the reader the full impact Jane made upon subsequent political figures and social movements.

This text certainly endows the reader with a deep sense of respect for Jane Addams. Linn does an excellent job of conveying her intense selflessness and active involvement in political and social reform, an especially astonishing circumstance given the lack of freedom and social mobility for women during that time period. However, his view is somewhat limited because of his relationship with Jane and the strong regard he had for her. Moreover, though Linn states that his book is meant to be merely the story of Jane's life, I would have appreciated more analysis and interpretation. The value of the book is lessened precisely because it lacks critical scrutiny. And, as I stated earlier, the book would also be much more useful if it included the historical perspective of Jane's life as well as a retrospective analysis of her achievements in modern context. I would recommend the interested person to balance a reading of this text with one of the many excellent, more recent biographies of Jane Addams, written by authors such as Louise W. Knight, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Allen F. Davis, and Dennis and Judith Fradin.

Great Bio, Towering Figure
This biography has an advantage over all other biographies of Addams: it was written not too long after her death by a family member that knew her well. Furthermore, Weber Linn was an English scholar, so his writing style is very refined and easy to read. Despite its complete lack of citations, the author is very objective to the subject at hand. The end result is a very intimate portrait of one (if not the) most amazing woman in American History. Some of the larger aspects of her life included: forming the Women's League for Peace in WWI, winning the Nobel Peace Prize, setting off the Settlement house movement in United States, and being blacklisted by the House for Un-American Activities (yes, she was that cool!). The greatness of Jane Addams is to be found in the details, however, and this book provides the reader with just that.An amazing life, well told. ... Read more

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Richie's Picks: JANE ADDAMS: CHAMPION OF DEMOCRACY
"Visitors often saw just one side of Chicago -- the lovely lakefront, the fabulous mansions of the wealthy merchants, the majestic skyscrapers, and the glittering night spots.
"There were entire neighborhoods where the residents lived packed together in filthy tenements and shacks. Many poor Chicagoans had no heat in the wintertime, no running water, and no neighborhood schools. Because the opportunity to bathe was rare for the poor, dirt sometimes accumulated on children until their skin resembled scales. In addition, the milk delivered to poor families was often spoiled.
"These unsanitary conditions claimed a large toll, particularly among the very young. In the city as a whole, half the children born in 1889 wouldn't live to celebrate their fifth birthdays. The death toll was even higher in poor neighborhoods, where families might have ten children in the hope that three or four would reach adulthood. Adults also suffered from outbreaks of disease, which included smallpox, cholera, scarlet fever, tuberculosis, typhoid fever, and dysentery. In 1885, for example, epidemics killed approximately one hundred thousand Chicagoans, or about one in every eight of the city's population."

Into this world of squalor and disease stepped the young woman who was determined to change things.

I like to think that I am doing my little bit to make the world a better place. I am always advocating loudly for peace and acceptance and equality, doing a lot of education-related volunteer work, drying my clothes in the sun, taking mass transit when practical, recycling and composting and planting trees. But then I read a book like JANE ADDAMS: CHAMPION OF DEMOCRACY and am again reminded of what it looks like to REALLY be serious about changing the world:

"By the early 1900s, Hull House had grown to thirteen buildings and was home to about forty staff residents, a quarter of them men. Among the residents were physicians, attorneys, journalists, businessmen, teachers, scientists, musicians, and artists. The Hull House settlement had become a vital part of the neighborhood. Of the 70,000 people who lived within six blocks of Hull House around the turn of the century, roughly 9,000 participated in the settlement's programs in any given week."

And to think that Jane Addams' work to create Hull House was but the platform from which she then worked -- in the forefront and with every expectation of achieving success -- for world peace, women's suffrage, racial equality, and an end to poverty and child labor.

"Jane Addams practiced what she preached. During her forty-six years as director of Hull House, she refused to accept even a penny in salary for herself. She also donated most of her personal funds to the settlement. She had a roof over her head, food, and some of her inheritance left, so why have a large bank account when the money could help the poor."

Some of the snapshots of her sharing behavior are truly delightful, being that she would barely have a gift open before immediately turning around and giving it away to somebody whose need, she felt, was greater than was her own.

Of course, Jane Addams did not accomplish her work single-handedly. Jane was an unstoppable organizer who -- over and over again -- lined up incredibly talented people and sought out significant financial and hands-on support from those well-off benefactors from Chicago and beyond who could readily afford to help support the amazing breadth of good works that she initiated.

Where did Jane Addams came from? How did she change the world? Why did she spend a decade being scorned for her views? How did she take on a crooked Chicago politician to literally clean up the city? And, most importantly, why would I would love for our children and our students to all know about this great woman? These are all questions to which Judith and Dennis Fradin provide answers in JANE ADDAMS: CHAMPION OF DEMOCRACY. A few years ago, I chatted with Dennis when he was up to his elbows in Jane's letters and other primary source material. The result of the Fradins' dedication to seeking out the truth about Jane Addams is a book that will help inspire a willingness in new generation to fight for change.

... Read more

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Allen Davis' account of Jane Addams' life, work and ideas remains the standard biography. ... 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

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The Education of Jane Addams traces, with unprecedented care, Addams's three-decade journey from a privileged prairie girlhood through her years as the competent spinster daughter in a demanding family after her father's death to her early seasoning on the Chicago reform scene. It weaves her spiritual struggles with Christianity into her political struggles with elitism and her emotional struggles with intimacy. Finally, it reveals the logic of her journey to Chicago and makes biographical sense of the political and personal choices she made once she arrived there. The founder of Chicago's Hull-House and, later, the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom is portrayed here as a complicated young woman who summoned the energy to pursue public life, the honesty to admit her own arrogance, and the imagination to see joy in collective endeavor. ... Read more

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James Weber Linn's"Jane Addams" is better
Victoria Brown's book on Jane Addams is a well written 421 page book with some photos.298 pages are text and pages 299 to 399 are notes.There is a selected bibliography and an index.I liked the photos and as mentioned the writing style.The bookmoves nicely.She gives credit to the work publishing the Jane Addams papers by Mary Bryan.But let us look at the title, The Education of Jane Addams.It almost mirror's the title by Gloria Dilberto, "A useful woman, the early life of Jane Addams."The Dilberto books was published in 1999.There are no new primary sources made available between the two publication dates.Dilberto writes as well as Brown and cites the sources better including Ron Beam's booklet.

But Brown is wise enough, unlike Dilberto,to note the utter complete lack of evidence pointing to a close physical relationship between Jane Addams and her intimate associates including Ellen Star and others.She wisely covers the subject in a foot note.She would be wiser still not to bring it up at all.Does the modern progressive nature of academic publishing by an academic press require a mention at all. Brown writes "[ I] must decline to define either Addams or Starr as lesbians simply because we do not have evidence of genital contact...." She then goes on for another whole single spaced page citing supposed sources about women'srelationships. I sense she cut even more speculation on the topic then she printed. Such diversions might help sell the book to the faculty at Grinnell, and Oberlin but the truth of the matter is that the wildest rumor and speculation about a historical person now can be published in an academic press and passed off as history.Better to save the trees. Better to put the writing talent to romance novels.

James Weber Linn's "Jane Addams" 1935,is also well written, more informative, and does not need to be censored. It has good photos.It is in all respects a better book.I also call to your attention if you wish to read the papers without the speculation, the Selected Papers of Jane Addams Volume 1, Preparing to lead 1860-81,edited by Mary Bryan, Barbara Blair and Maree De Angurypublished by University of Illinois Press.

Definitive Biography
Victoria Brown has written the definitive biography of Addams to date.She takes advantage of recent discoveries and her own meticulous research to write the best intellectual biography of Addams available.Brown deals with controversial aspects of Addams life with neither the sexism of some of Addams's biographers nor the romanticization of others.Those who think they know Addams will find new insights and readers not familiar with Addams will discover one of the most important figures of the 20th century.Wonderful photographs and thorough citations.

Intriguing biography
This clear and accessible biography offers an intriguing examination of Jane Addams' early life and social and political ideals. The tone of affectionate even-handedness captures Addams' personality and makes her real to the reader. The book is thorough and carefully researched. ... Read more

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Nearly a century before the advent of "multiculturalism," Jane Addams put forward her conception of the moral significance of diversity. Each member of a democracy, Addams believed, is under a moral obligation to seek out diverse experiences, making a daily effort to confront others' perspectives. Morality must be seen as a social rather than an individual endeavor, and democracy as a way of life rather than merely a basis for laws. Failing this, both democracy and ethics remain sterile, empty concepts.

In this, Addams's earliest book on ethics--presented here with a substantial introduction by Charlene Haddock Seigfried--she reflects on the factors that hinder the ability of all members of society to determine their own well-being. Observing relationships between charitable workers and their clients, between factory owners and their employers, and between household employers and their servants, she identifies sources of friction and shows how conceiving of democracy as a social obligation can lead to new, mutually beneficial lines of conduct. She also considers the proper education of workers, struggles between parents and their adult daughters over conflicting family and social claims, and the merging of politics with the daily lives of constituents.

"The sphere of morals is the sphere of action," Addams proclaims.It is not enough to believe passively in the innate dignity of all human beings. Rather, one must work daily to root out racial, gender, class, and other prejudices from personal relationships. ... 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

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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
Although Jane Addams s Twenty Years at Hull-House is considered an American classic, Addams s dozen books and hundreds of published articles have sometimes been thought of as quaint examples of an overly optimistic era. Beginning in the 1990s, feminist scholars rediscovered the vitality of Addams s social philosophy and challenged the marginalization of her ideas. Today, following a war-laden twentieth century and the failure of militarism and get tough approaches to solve domestic and global problems, Addams s social theorizing, which emphasizes cosmopolitan experiences and sympathetic connections, provides a provocative alternative to Western notions of individualism, transactional relations, and spectator epistemology. Feminist Interpretations of Jane Addams brings together many of the leading Addams scholars in North America to consider Addams s ongoing relevance to feminist thought.
Aside from the editor, the contributors are Victoria Bissell Brown, Marilyn Fischer, Judith M. Green, Shannon Jackson, Katherine Joslin, Louise W. Knight, L. Ryan Musgrave Bonomo, Wendy Sarvasy, Charlene Haddock Seigfried, Eleanor J. Stebner, and Judy D. Whipps. ... Read more

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It's the hottest, stickiest day of the summer. A fat-sun-in-the-sky day. An eating-ice-pops-on-the-porch day. And for Kishi and Renée, it's a best-friends-breakup day. Each girl sits on her own front porch, waiting for the other to apologize, even though they know they'll never speak to each other again, no matter how bored they get. But then the sounds of feet slapping the pavement and voices chanting double-dutch rhymes drift up the avenue, and neither one can resist going out in the street to play.

This lyrical friendship story, the first collaboration of two outstanding artists, pairs a rhythmic text with distinctive collage illustrations. Its subtle message about sharing and forgiveness will resonate with anyone who has ever experienced the ups and downs of being, and having, a best friend. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

"A-never-going-to-be-friends-again-day."


It's a steaming summer day, the sun beating down on the sidewalk, too hot to even flutter a fan. Kishi sits alone on her front porch; Renee sprawls on the grass, looking for four-leaf clovers. Although best friends, neither girl will speak to one another on this sweltering summer morning, even when Mrs. Johnson asks them to help with her crossword puzzle, or when Mr. Paul invites them to weed his flower bed. Later, one girl plays with the hose, pretending she's under a waterfall, the other plays hopscotch, still alone. It seems the girls have had a falling out over which one got the last blue popsicle that morning, leaving the other with none.

Both girls are stubborn, determined not to give in, until they hear the seductive thump of a jump rope hitting the ground, the chant of neighborhood friends, "Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack..." Neither can resist. Soon find they are turning the ropes for Double Dutch, everyone jumping for all they're worth. When the ice cream truck comes around for the second time on this sizzling summer day, all the neighborhood kids run to buy blue popsicles. Kishi and Renee find themselves in the same predicament as in the morning, only this time they have learned their lesson, splitting the popsicle, one-half for each. Now it is a "feeling-good-about-being-best-friends-again-day".

The images that accompany the story are quite remarkable, paper collages cleverly arranged to form the figures, layered for dimension, with bright colors, all of it creating a sense of streets baking in the summer sun, two girls bored without a best friend to pass the time with, but unwilling to bridge the gap. This is a great lesson in coming-together-after-a-fight and learning to share. Beautifully written and illustrated. Luan Gaines/ 2005.

Hot Day, Hot Tempers
As the fat sun looms in the air above Abbott Avenue, Renée and Kishi, with tempers as sizzling as this summer day, vow that they will never be friends again. They spend their afternoon sneaking peaks at each other, searching for a glimmer of an apology or a hint of regret, yet knowing neither would raise a white flag of defeat on this "never-speak-to-her-again-even-if-she-was-the-last-person-on-earth" day. Suddenly, a chant, visually winding around the pages' illustrations, begins to echo in the distance. Renée and Kishi emerge from their solitary playgrounds and follow the Siren-like sounds of "humming ropes" that seem to kiss the air. Soon, the pangs of the day are erased with a few hops of double dutch and the sweet taste of a shared blue ice pop. This lyrical story awakens the senses with a harmonious blend of engaging text and cut paper and found-object collage, sending the reader on an everyday journey with everyday magic. The illustrations' hues seem to melt off the page, saturating the reader's thoughts with a simmering brew of intrigue and dizzying chaos. While the collages may appear an arresting whirlwind of activity, the energy provided through this medium enhances the innocence of the text, allowing the words to capture the beauty of each moment of the story. This subtle message, emphasizing the challenges of friendship and forgiveness, is sure to please children of every age.

Hot town, summer in the city.
When friends have a falling out, no one ends up happy.This is the case whether the friends are four, fourteen, or forty.There are roughly seven hundred million picture books about such break-ups too.Some of these are good.Most of these are not.Now in the case of "Hot Day on Abbott Avenue", the book is excellent.Well written.Illustrated with something akin to aplomb.And it's a story that kids can relate to.Friends break-up every day.How they get back together is the important lesson to be learned.

It's hot.Sticky, nasty, "too hot to even flutter a fan" hot.And what happens when the temperature rises?So do tempers too.In the case of Kishi and Renee, we first meet them as they keep a careful distance from one another.These former best friends who used to be so close have quarreled.It seems the ice cream man came through and Kishi went and bought the last blue ice pop when she KNEW that it was Renee's favorite.Kishi points out that it's her favorite too, but there's no agreeing between these two.For them, this is a never-going-to-be-friends-again day.Period.It's only when they find themselves lured to a tempting double dutch game down the street and meet up with a restocked ice cream man that these two can put aside their differences and become best friends again.

Now author Karen English has written a nice story.It's not going to knock your socks off, and it's not quite as good as her amazing, "Speak To Me (And I Will Listen Between the Lines)" which also came out in 2004.Still, it's a good story about healing rifts.Javaka Steptoe is the wonder behind this book's visually entrancing format.Using a combination of the most delicate cut papers alongside found-object collage, the story becomes an engrossing read simply because it's such a wonder to page through.Renee and Kishi's neighbor Miss Johnson is decked out in pale transparent yellow slacks and a crinkly realistic pink crepe paper shirt that must've taken Steptoe days to get exactly right.When Kishi aims a water hose straight up to jump through, the water is a string of pink curly streamers going haywire into the sky.There's a real sense of movement and energy to these pictures.Static paper never seemed so vibrant.

Certainly this kind of illustration is not going to be to everybody's taste.But for those who're interested, "Hot Day on Abbott Avenue" is a beautifully illustrated well-written romp.A great tale with great characters that kids everywhere will understand and identify with.
... Read more

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"20 Years at Hull House" by JaneAddams is a surprisingly compelling book, free of the ethnic racism and stereotyping that blight many similar works of her era. Addams' account of her groundbreaking community center in one of the worst parts of late 19th-century Chicago fairly overflows with compassion and almost unbelievable fairness. Jane Addams came from a conventional Middle American milieu, but was radicalized by seeing the ravages of the Industrial Revolution both in Britain and Chicago. This timeless memoir of the years 1889-1909 documents her wide-ranging concerns, embracing public health, pacifism and feminism as well as philanthropy, working-class education and poverty alleviation. Many of the ideas implemented by Addams in her "20 Years at Hull House" decades ahead of their time. While not light reading, this classic contains many gripping portraits of the desperation of immigrant life and the simple power of human decency. More than that,"20 Years at Hull-House" has inspired generations of US social and political activists. For decades a Hull House sojourn, or at least a visit, was virtually a pilgrimage for all kinds of progressive reformers.While Addams's reputation was damaged by her antiwar stance during World War I, it recovered enough for her to win the 1931 Nobel Peace Prize. ... Read more

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Over the years a number of sociologists have been constantly overshadowed, going almost virtually unnoticed by the discipline. The purpose of this work is to resurrect those sociologists by attempting to bring them into the mainstream. Dr. Romano will enlarge upon the contributions of Jane Addams, Walter Benjamin, W.E.B. Du Bois, Harriet Martineau, Pitirim A. Sorokin, Flora Tristan, George E. Vincent, and Beatrice Webb. ... Read more

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