Jane Addams And The Dream Of American Democracy: A Life - Hardcover

Elshtain, Jean Bethke

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0465019129 ISBN 13: 9780465019120

Publisher: Basic Books, 2001

Synopsis

The founder of the famed Chicago institution Hull House and first American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize has for too long been misunderstood as a mere "do-gooder," argues Jean Bethke Elshtain in this eagerly anticipated new interpretation of the life and work of Jane Addams. Like her biographer, Addams (1860-1935) was a quintessential "public intellectual." Under her hand, Hull House became a cultural and intellectual center, a place where beauty was served, where University of Chicago professors lectured and debate and discussion filled the auditorium.Elshtain examines Addams's life chronologically and thematically, exploring Addams's embrace of "social feminism" and her challenge to the usual cleavage between "conservative" and "liberal"-themes Elshtain brilliantly explores in her own writings. Jane Addams and the Dream of American Democracy is a rich and revealing portrait of one of the most extraordinary figures in American history.

About this title

About the Author

Jean Bethke Elshtain is the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics at the University of Chicago. She holds seven honorary degrees and in 1996 was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is a contributing editor of The New Republic and the author of more than nine books, including Women and War and Democracy on Trial, both published by Basic Books.

Reviews

erhaps as a consequence of the current governmental retreat from public welfare programs, there has been a notable resurgence of interest in that icon of private charity, Jane Addams, founder of Hull-House. Unlike Gioia Diliberto, who in her recent biography investigated some of the conflicts in Addams's personal development, Elshtain (Democracy on Trial; etc.), a professor of social and political ethics at the University of Chicago, undertakes to present an account of Addams's public thought grounded firmly in extensive paraphrase of her writing. Though she subtitles this volume "A Life," Elshtain is not especially interested in the details of Addams's psychological, emotional or even political development. Rather she presents her subject, to whom she is clearly devoted, as a woman who came to moral consciousness early and who acted upon that consciousness with energy and devotion in every area that she felt demanded her attention. Elshtain is at great pains to defend her heroine against modern interpretations, against, for example, the charges of cultural insensitivity leveled by Jill Ker Conway or the suggestions of lesbianism prompted by Addams's 30-year relationship with Mary Rozet Smith. As a result of the author's resolute refusal to speculate on the private Jane Addams, the woman who emerges from these pages is the familiar public figure noble, generous, empathetic but not altogether engaging and one who, despite Elshtain's best efforts, emerges as heroic but faintly irrelevant to the present. A companion volume, The Jane Addams Reader, edited by Elshtain, will be published simultaneously. 8 pages of illus. not seen by PW.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Jane Addams, the founder of Hull House and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for her work in the international peace movement, inspired both great adoration and great censure in her day. Elshtain (social and political ethics, Univ. of Chicago; Women and War) here seeks to reassess the impact of this most unusual woman. She argues that Addams was a great humanitarian and a spokesperson for a new brand of American democracy that was fairer and more tolerant than what had gone before. Relying heavily on Addams's voluminous writings, Elshtain offers a fascinating chronological and thematic account of the life of one of the most innovative and significant women of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Written in a highly readable style, her volume is likely to become the standard biography of this significant social reformer and is highly recommended for all public or university libraries. Theresa McDevitt, Indiana Univ. of Pennsylvania Lib.

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0465019129
• ISBN 13: 9780465019120
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 360