1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910782456303321

Autore

Knight Louise W

Titolo

Citizen [[electronic resource] ] : Jane Addams and the struggle for democracy / / Louise W. Knight

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Chicago, : University of Chicago Press, c2005

ISBN

1-281-95729-1

9786611957292

0-226-44701-4

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (601 p.)

Disciplina

361.92

B

Soggetti

Women social workers - United States

Social workers - United States

Women social reformers - United States

Social reformers - United States

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. [523]-564) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Part I. The Given Life, 1860- 88 -- Part II. The Chosen Life, 1889-99 -- Afterword: Scholarship and Jane Addams -- Abbreviations -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

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