A history of Hull House and the many social reforms it inspired serve as a background to a biography of the woman who dedicated her life to improving society.

This book examines the life and works of Jane Addams who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (1931). Addams led an international women's peace movement and is noted for spearheading a first-of-its-kind international conference of women at The Hague during World War I. She helped to found the Women's International League of Peace and Freedom. She was also a prophetic peace theorist whose ideas were dismissed by her contemporaries. Her critics conflated her activism and ideas with attempts to undermine the war effort. Perhaps more important, her credibility was challenged by sexist views characterizing her as a “silly” old woman. Her omission as a pioneering, feminist, peace theorist is a contemporary problem. This book recovers and reintegrates Addams and her concept of “positive peace,” which has relevancy for UN peacekeeping operations and community policing. Addams began her public life as a leader of the U.S. progressive era (1890 - 1920) social reform movement. She combined theory and action through her settlement work in the, often contentious, immigrant communities of Chicago. These experiences were the springboard for her innovative theories of democracy and peace, which she advanced through extensive public speaking engagements, 11 books and hundreds of articles. While this book focuses on Addams as peace theorist and activist it also shows how her eclectic interests and feminine standpoint led to pioneering efforts in American pragmatism, sociology, public administration and social work. Each field, which traces its origin to this period, is actively recovering Addams’ contributions.

"Ever since she was a little girl, Jane Addams hoped to help people in need. She wanted to create a place where people could find food, work, and community. In 1889, she chose a house in a run-down Chicago neighborhood and turned it into Hull House--a settlement home--soon adding a playground, kindergarten, and a public bath, By 1907, Hull House included thirteen buildings. And by the early 1920s, more than nine thousand people visited Hull House each week. The dreams of a smart, caring girl had become a reality. And the lives of hundreds of thousands of people were transformed when they stepped into the house that Jane Addams built."--Provided by publisher.

Jane Addams (1860-1935), known as the "mother" of social work, was a pioneer American settlement activist, public philosopher, sociologist, protestor, author, and leader in women's suffrage and world peace. In 1931 she became the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and is recognized as the founder of the social work profession in the United States. Contents: Democracy and Social Ethics The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets A New Conscience and An Ancient Evil Why Women Should Vote Belated Industry Twenty Years at Hull-House

Among the great figures of Progressive Era reform are Edith and Grace Abbott. This is the story of Grace as told by her sister, Edith. She recalls the struggles of her sister who, as head of the Immigrant's Protective League and the U.S. Children's Bureau, championed children's rights from the slums of Chicago to the villages of Appalachia.

Sophonisba Breckinridge's remarkable career stretched from the Civil War to the Cold War. She took part in virtually every reform campaign of the Progressive and New Deal eras and became a nationally and internationally renowned figure. Her work informed women’s activism for decades and continues to shape progressive politics today. Anya Jabour's biography rediscovers this groundbreaking American figure. After earning advanced degrees in politics, economics, and law, Breckinridge established the University of Chicago's School of Social Service Administration, which became a feminist think tank that promoted public welfare policy and propelled women into leadership positions. In 1935, Breckinridge’s unremitting efforts to provide government aid to the dispossessed culminated in her appointment as an advisor on programs for the new Social Security Act. A longtime activist in international movements for peace and justice, Breckinridge also influenced the formation of the United Nations and advanced the idea that "women’s rights are human rights." Her lifelong commitment to social justice created a lasting legacy for generations of progressive activists.

Jane Addams was the first American woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Now Citizen, Louise W. Knight's masterful biography, reveals Addams's early development as a political activist and social philosopher. In this book we observe a powerful mind grappling with the radical ideas of her age, most notably the ever-changing meanings of democracy. Citizen covers the first half of Addams's life, from 1860 to 1899. Knight recounts how Addams, a child of a wealthy family in rural northern Illinois, longed for a life of larger purpose. She broadened her horizons through education, reading, and travel, and, after receiving an inheritance upon her father's death, moved to Chicago in 1889 to co-found Hull House, the city's first settlement house. Citizen shows vividly what the settlement house actually was—a neighborhood center for education and social gatherings—and describes how Addams learned of the abject working conditions in American factories, the unchecked power wielded by employers, the impact of corrupt local politics on city services, and the intolerable limits placed on women by their lack of voting rights. These experiences, Knight makes clear, transformed Addams. Always a believer in democracy as an abstraction, Addams came to understand that this national ideal was also a life philosophy and a mandate for civic activism by all. As her story unfolds, Knight astutely captures the enigmatic Addams's compassionate personality as well as her flawed human side. Written in a strong narrative voice, Citizen is an insightful portrait of the formative years of a great American leader. “Knight’s decision to focus on Addams’s early years is a stroke of genius. We know a great deal about Jane Addams the public figure. We know relatively little about how she made the transition from the 19th century to the 20th. In Knight’s book, Jane Addams comes to life. . . . Citizen is written neither to make money nor to gain academic tenure; it is a gift, meant to enlighten and improve. Jane Addams would have understood.”—Alan Wolfe, New York Times Book Review “My only complaint about the book is that there wasn’t more of it. . . . Knight honors Addams as an American original.”—Kathleen Dalton, Chicago Tribune

A sustained analysis of how Addams gave American pragmatism a radical, revolutionary edge