Jane Addams: Champion of Democracy [Hardcover]

Dennis Brindell Fradin (Author), Judith Bloom Fradin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 11, 2006 | Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up

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account, acclaimed husband-and-wife team, Dennis Brindell Fradin and Judith Bloom Fradin, draw upon hundreds of historical documents and archival photographs to create a revealing portrait of the woman whose very way of life made her an American icon.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Starred Review. Grade 6 Up–The introduction asserts, Today most people either don't know who Jane Addams was, or they have only a vague idea, but the number of books published about her, especially juvenile titles, suggests that she is not such an obscure figure. What distinguishes this one is the broader context that the Fradins establish, placing Hull House and the activism of Addams and her friends within the sphere of the history they so clearly influenced. The past is consistently linked to the present by quantifying prices in today's values, explaining what life was like for the poor before government programs were available to help them, and detailing the specifics of life and politics in Chicago and the world in Addams's time. The scene is carefully set for her amazing role as a social reformer and Nobel Peace Prize winner. Opening with her garbage crusade against unsanitary conditions and entrenched politicians in Chicago, then jumping back to her life as a child in Cedarville, IL, and continuing in a linear format, anecdotal information carries the story. Thoughtful placement of quotes from her own testimony and descriptions of her personal quirks humanize her. Primary documents, mainly in the form of archival photos and direct quotes from letters, break up the text. Notes reveal that the authors conducted interviews and did extensive research to authenticate the stories–the detail of these notes will assist researchers seeking to pursue their sources.–Janet S. Thompson, Chicago Public Library
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

A fascinating and rich life is related in strong, unfussy prose by the Fradins. Known as Jennie as a child, the peace activist, founder of Hull House, and Nobel Prize winner felt like an ugly duckling. But college, Europe, and the discovery of good work that she could do in the city of Chicago transformed her. The settlement house she founded in 1889 provided a place for the poor to learn, to socialize, to share. She mobilized both workers and volunteers, wrote, spoke, studied, and raised funds. Most of the photographs are portraits; the text is enlivened when the images are those taken at Hull House or at marches. The narrative is smoothly written, and the opening anecdote, which describes how she became a garbage inspector of the Nineteenth Ward of Chicago in order to get the garbage picked up, is telling and draws readers into the story. Addams' bouts of depression and her deeply unpopular opposition to World War I are noted but do not unbalance the narrative. What shines is her everyday heroism, which changed lives. Excellent. GraceAnne DeCandido
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Hardcover: 216 pages
• Publisher: Clarion Books; None edition (December 11, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618504362
• ISBN-13: 978-0618504367
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 8.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,220,051 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Richie's Picks: JANE ADDAMS: CHAMPION OF DEMOCRACY, December 14, 2007

By 

Richie Partington "Richie's Picks" (Sebastopol, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jane Addams: Champion of Democracy (Hardcover)

"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.