A Useful Woman: The Early Life of Jane Addams - Softcover
Frequently recognized as one of the most influential women of the century — and considered a heroine by social activists around the globe — Jane Addams struggled to earn her place in history. A Useful Woman is the definitive resource on the early years of the future founder of the Jane Addams Hull House and the 1931 Nobel Peace Prize winner. During the ongoing economic recovery, Addams' core issues of poverty, wealth equity, and social action continue to be discussed at length by our nation's leaders and the media. At the beginning of our national dialogue on this topic is Jane Addams, and this book reveals her life at the outset of her mission to provide for the poor and underserved. A Useful Woman is the ultimate study on the formative years of not only one of Chicago's most formative figures but also one of the most important women in American history.
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Review:
The story of settlement house pioneer Jane Addams's early life traces a trajectory that has become almost a feminist cliché. The frustrated Victorian spinster, plagued by mysterious physical ailments, finds a socially useful outlet for her intelligence and energy and her illnesses vanish--she becomes the picture of health and contentment. Familiar though it is in outline, the particulars of Addams's personal history are fascinating, especially as related in veteran biographer Gioia Diliberto's engaging, accessible style. Young Jane comes to life as a powerful personality notable for her "cool intellect." As a schoolgirl she was already convinced that "her life would not be ordinary." The author does a subtle job of assessing the psychological roots of Addams's empathy with the poor and commitment to social justice without scanting the integrity of her ethical convictions. And Diliberto's familiarity with contemporary scholarship shows in her lucid summary of the trends in religious and philanthropic beliefs that led Addams to found Hull-House in 1889 to help poor people better themselves; yet she wears her learning lightly in a lively text. The main narrative closes in 1899, with Hull-House thriving and 39-year-old Jane happily involved in a relationship with Mary Rozet Smith that endured until Smith's death in 1934. (Addams survived her by only a year.) This is a model of popular, undogmatic feminist biography. --Wendy Smith
About the Author:
Gioia Diliberto is the author of four other books — two historical novels and two biographies — in addition to A Useful Woman. She specializes in writing about women's lives and has been a contributor to many publications, including The New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian, Town and Country, and Vanity Fair.
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- PublisherAgate Midway
- Publication date2016
- ISBN 10 1572841346
- ISBN 13 9781572841345
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages318
- Rating
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