Synopses & Reviews
The organization of the book allows it to be assigned in parts or as a whole. This is perfect for an undergraduate course … Opdycke’s demonstration of Addams personal transformation and focus beyond local reform activities provides a better understanding of the importance of progressive ideals to modern America … I was truly impressed with Opdycke’s ability to make this more than just a traditional biography that explains Addams life and activities.
-Charissa Threat, Northeastern University
…perfect for a survey course because the author uses Addams and her experiences to illuminate the major political, social, and economic trends and events that defined the decades between 1880 and 1920. The book utilizes Addams and her story as a window to the American story.
-Carl Bon Tempo, SUNY-University at Albany
Synopsis
Jane Addams and Her Vision of America brings Addams' life and work alive in a way that no account has before. The book is a presentation of Jane Addams' story in clear, non-technical language, focusing primarily on her philosophy and achievements as well as their significance in her own time and ours.
Paperback, brief and inexpensive, each of the titles in the Library of American Biography series focuses on a figure whose actions and ideas significantly influenced the course of American history and national life. In addition, each biography relates the life of its subject to the broader themes and developments of the times.
Synopsis
The book is a presentation of Jane Addams' story in clear, non-technical language, focusing primarily on her philosophy and achievements as well as their significance in her own time and ours.
KEY TOPICS: Jane Addams and Her Vision of America brings Addams' life and work alive in a way no book has before. The book provides extensive coverage of the opening of Hull House and the bitter attacks on Addams' peace activism after World War I while tracing the development of her social philosophy and distinct brand of feminism.
About the Author
Sandra Opdycke
Sandra Opdycke is the associate director of the Institute for Innovation in Social Policy at Vassar College. A student of Mark Carnes, she received her Ph.D. from Columbia in 1995 and has lectured and written extensively on urban history, women's history and public health, including No One Was Turned Away: The Role of Public Hospitals in New York City Since 1900 (Oxford, 1999) and The Routledge Historical Atlas of Women in America (Routledge, 2000). She has also contributed 70 essays to American National Biography (Oxford, 1999), which was edited by authors John A. Garraty and Mark Carnes.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I: Inventing a Life of Service
CHAPTER 1 FINDING THE PATH
CHAPTER 2 REACHING OUT TO THE NEIGHBORS
CHAPTER 3 PUTTING DEMOCRACY INTO PRACTICE
CHAPTER 4 CHOOSING COLLABORATION
Part II: Working for Reform
CHAPTER 5 FOCUSING ON WOMEN
CHAPTER 6 NOURISHING THE SPIRIT OF YOUNG PEOPLE
CHAPTER 7 SPEAKING UP FOR LABOR
CHAPTER 8 TAKING PROGRESSIVISM TO THE NATION
Part III: Broader Horizons
CHAPTER 9 TRYING TO STOP A WAR
CHAPTER 10 SEARCHING FOR HOPE IN THE 1920S
CHAPTER 11 LOOKING FORWARD, LOOKING BACKWARD
CHAPTER 12 LEAVING A LEGACY
Discussion Questions
A Note on the Sources
Index