Customer Reviews

Jane Addams and the Dream of American Democracy: A Life

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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.

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.

Describes the vast contributions made by Addams through her work at Hull House settlement in Chicago during the late 1880's through 1935 and her work with the women's international peace movement. Addams' early and later life is documented through her own words and those of others, along with Elshtain's insightful commentaries. The author offers a detailed picture of the various areas of Addams' work, from her role as Chicago's garbage inspector to international delegate in a war-torn Europe. I read this in combination with The Jane Addams Reader.