Jane Addams

"The following material, much of which has been published in McClure's Magazine, was written, not from the point of view of the expert, but because of my own need for a counter-knowledge to a bewildering mass of information which came to me through the Juvenile Protective Association of Chicago. The reports which its twenty field officers daily brought to its main office adjoining Hull House became to me a revelation of the dangers implicit in city conditions and of the allurements which are designedly placed around many young girls in order to draw them into an evil life. As head of the Publication Committee, I read the original documents in a series of special investigations made by the Association on dance halls, theatres, amusement parks, lake excursion boats, petty gambling, the home surroundings of one hundred Juvenile Court children and the records of four thousand parents who clearly contributed to the delinquency of their own families. The Association also collected the personal histories of two hundred department-store girls, of two hundred factory girls, of two hundred immigrant girls, of two hundred office girls, and of girls employed in one hundred hotels and restaurants. While this experience was most distressing, I was, on the other hand, much impressed and at times fairly startled by the large and diversified number of people to whom the very existence of the white slave traffic had become unendurable and who promptly responded to any appeal made on behalf of its victims. City officials, policemen, judges, attorneys, employers, trades unionists, physicians, teachers, newly arrived immigrants, clergymen, railway officials, and newspaper men, as under a profound sense of compunction, were unsparing of time and effort when given an opportunity to assist an individual girl, to promote legislation designed for her protection, or to establish institutions for her rescue. I therefore venture to hope that in serving my own need I may also serve the need of a rapidly growing public when I set down for rational consideration the temptations surrounding multitudes of young people and when I assemble, as best I may, the many indications of a new conscience, which in various directions is slowly gathering strength and which we may soberly hope will at last successfully array itself against this incredible social wrong, ancient though it may be"--Preface. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).

Published in 1902, Democracy and Social Ethics is Addams' first book. Originally a course of lectures delivered at “various colleges and extension centres” most of its contents were likely composed at the Hull House (Prefatory Note, 4). This book offers the reader an accessible language for explaining the relationship between ethics and democracy. Rather than define democracy as a political system, Addams defines it as a lifestyle, and a practice of ethics. Addams, a radical pragmatist, illustrates the necessity of this definition through her experiences with a variety of characters and events at Hull House.

Jane Addams's narrative of life in an immigrant urban neighborhood provides students with an introduction to the issues of the Progressive era and the tenets of social activism. This new teaching edition reduces Addams's original text by about 35 percent, trimming illustrative detail to focus on the ideological underpinnings of the original work. The author sketches a brief biographical portrait of Addams, outlines the decisions and convictions that led her to found Hull-House, and includes a vivid picture of turn-of-the-century Chicago. Related documents include a description of life at Hull-House from the perspective of an immigrant who frequented it, an early review of Hull-House, and perspectives from other reformers.

Lathrop's life up to her 1912 appointment to Children's Bureau, and from 1922 to 1932. "An account of the intervening years will be written by Grace Abbott"--Preface.

"Wild rumors of a Devil Baby in Hull-House brought a flood of curiosity-seekers to Jane Addams's door. To her surprise, many of the most adamant about seeing the Devil Baby were older, working-class, immigrant women.". "These women, as a rule rather withdrawn from the community, seemed to spring to life in response to this apocryphal story - and to be inspired to tell stories of their own. The tales they shared with Addams in the wake of the Devil Baby were more personal and revealing than any they had previously told her: stories of abusive mates, lost or neglectful children, and endless, ill-paid menial labor endured on behalf of loved ones. In response to these sometimes wrenching conversations, Addams wrote The Long Road of Woman's Memory, an extended musing on the role of memory and myth in women's lives.". "Seen in the context of Addams's personal connection with these diverse women and their stories, her larger efforts to bring about equity and social justice appear all the more courageous and vital. Charlene Haddock Seigfried's new introduction sets Addams's observations in the context of pragmatist and feminist traditions."--BOOK JACKET.

Book digitized by Google from the library of the University of Michigan and uploaded to the Internet Archive by user tpb.