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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

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

Amazon.com
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 Book Description

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

Book Description

Product Description
The Jane Addams School for Democracy (JAS) was founded in 1996 to create a space for democratic education and practice for new immigrant families, college students, and faculty.It was conceived as a democratic organization--one with minimal, non-hierarchial structures that would allow participants to shape its agenda.Ten years later, more than 1500 participants at JAS--Hmong, East Africans, and Latin Americans--have become U.S. citizens.This book tells the story of the Jane Addams School in many ways through many voices, including those of nonnative English speakers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A New Paradigm for Learning
This amazing book describes a powerful learning process, that of ultimate respect for the learner in a setting that should be the norm of schooling, namely democracy. The Jane Addams School for Democracy makes everyone a teacher and everyone a learner with remarkable results. This works wonderfully well with all ages in a public school setting, including particularly, English language learners. It's fascinating to ponder the impact of this process writ largely in conventional school settings. This book encapsulates a new paradigm for education. ... Read more

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

Book Description
Most people know Jane Addams (1860-1935) as the force behind Hull House, one of the first settlement houses in the United States. She was also an ardent suffragist and civil rights activist, co-founding the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the American Civil Liberties Union. But it was her work as a pacifist that put her in the international spotlight. Although many people labeled her unpatriotic for her pacifist activities, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931 and, at the time of her death, Jane Addams was one of the most respected and admired women in the world. In this well-researched and inspiring account, acclaimed husband-and-wife team, Dennis Brindell Fradin and Judith Bloom Fradin, draw upon hundreds of historical documents and archival photographs to create a revealing portrait of the woman whose very way of life made her an American icon. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

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

Book Description
1912. From the Preface: The following material, much of which has been published in McClure's Magazine, was written, not from the point of view of the expert, but because of my own need for a counter-knowledge to a bewildering mass of information which came to me through the Juvenile Protective Association of Chicago. The reports which its twenty field officers daily brought to its main office adjoining Hull House became to me a revelation of the dangers implicit in city conditions and of the allurements which are designedly placed around many young girls in order to draw them into an evil life. Contents: As inferred from An Analogy; As indicated by Recent Legal Enactments; As indicated by the Amelioration of Economic Conditions; As indicated by the Moral Education and Legal Protection of Children; As indicated by Philanthropic Rescue and Prevention; and As indicated by Increased Social Control. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

addams, j (text, hard)
a new conscience and an ancient evi ... Read more

Book 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

Book Description

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.

Customer Reviews (3)

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

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

Book Description
JANE ADDAMS A BIOGRAPHY By JAMES WEBER LINN ILLUSTRATED D. APPLETON-CENTURY COMPANY INCORPORATED NEW YORK 1935 LONDON j KAnm h MM i i PREFACE npHIS book is intended to be not so much an interpre-JL tation of Jane Addams as the story of her life. She has interpreted herself not only throughout her books but particularly in a single sentence written only a few years ago, in 1929 The modern world is developing an almost mystic sense of the continuity and interdependence of mankind how can we make this consciousness the unique contribution of our time to the small handful of incentives which really motivate human conduct As the story of Jane Addamss life, this book is au thoritative to this extent Before my aunt died, she turned over to me all files of her own manuscripts, pub lished and unpublished all letters, records, and clippings which she had preserved, from her first valentine to her last round-the-world speech in Washington on May x, 1935, Do what you like with them, she said- I have left them to you in my will My own personal acquaint ance with her, or hers with me, perhaps I should say, lasted almost sixty years It is to be hoped that some day some scholar, completely acquainted with the history of the development of sociology and of American civilization in the last half-century, will offer a picture of it as illu minated by her life, for I think she threw more light into its dark places than any one else, But for her personal history I had all available information. My aunt read over and annotated the first draft of the first eight chap vil viii PREFACE ters of this book, talked over the next three, and agreed upon the proportion of the remainder. I realize now that as we talked things over, neither she nor I saw her in perspec tive. Neither of us had any just conception of the view the world seems to have had of her importance to it. In the preparation of the book I have specifically to thank my daughter Elizabeth Allen for her help in ex amining the great mass of personal records the Mac millan Company for permission to use many extracts from Miss Addamss published works and many old friends of hers, in particular Mrs Catherine Waugh McCulloch, Doctor Alice Hamilton, and Miss Ellen Gates Starr, for facts, suggestions, and comments that have proved in valuable. JAMES WEBER LINN PREFACE CONTENTS PAGE CHAPTER I. JANE ADDAMSS FATHER ..... i II. A DIFFERENT CHILD ..... 22 III. ROCKFORD COLLEGE ...... 40 IV. WHAT SHALL SHE Do ..... 65 V. SHE FINDS A WAY ....... 91 VI. HULL HOUSE BEGINS ...... no VII. Six WOMEN ....... 129 VIII. ETHICS IN POLITICS .... 151 IX. WORK FOR CHILDREN ...... 178 X. GROWTH ... .... 190 XI. WIDENING INFLUENCES . ... 209 XII. A DECADE OF WRITING .... 242 XIII SUFFRAGE AND PROGRESSIVISM . . , 262 XIV, PACIFISM ........ 284 XV. CONTINUOUS MEDIATION ... 300 XVI. STANDING ALONE . ..... 312 XVII. THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN . . . .335 XVIII. POST-WAR REFLECTIONS ..... 3S 2 XIX. THEY COME TO PRAISE .... 369 XX. QUIET YEARS ....... 395 XXI. SHE GOES IN PEACE ...... 410 XXII IN RETROSPECT ...... 429 INDEX ...... 44 1 IX ILLUSTRATIONS Jane Addams at seventy Frontispiece FACING PAGE The Addams home at Cedarville, Illinois 16 The Addams mills at Cedarville, Illinois 16 Jane Addams at four 24 Jane Addams at six 24 John H. Addams 32 Jane Addams at sixteen 32 Jane Addams as an undergraduate at Rockford College, 1880 48 Jane Addams in London, 1888 48 The original Charles Hull homestead 94 Hull House as it is to-day 94 Hull House founders Ellen Gates Starr, Jane Addams, Julia Lathrop, Florence Kelley 116 Hull House friends Dr, Alice Hamilton, Mary Rozet Smith, Mrs. Joseph T. Bowen, Jane Addams . . 148 Jane Addams with her little friends at Hull House . ... ... 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

Amazon.com
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 near the end of Jane Addams and the Dream of American Democracy: "Such a tremendous force." --John Miller Book 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.

The founder of the famed Chicago institution Hull House and first American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize has for too long been misunderstood as a mere "do-gooder," argues Jean Bethke Elshtain in this eagerly anticipated new interpretation of the life and work of Jane Addams. Like her biographer, Addams (1860-1935) was a quintessential "public intellectual." Under her hand, Hull House became a cultural and intellectual center, a place where beauty was served, where University of Chicago professors lectured and debate and discussion filled the auditorium.

Elshtain examines Addams's life chronologically and thematically, exploring Addams's embrace of "social feminism" and her challenge to the usual cleavage between "conservative" and "liberal"-themes Elshtain brilliantly explores in her own writings. Jane Addams and the Dream of American Democracy is a rich and revealing portrait of one of the most extraordinary figures in American history. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

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

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