About this item
In this landmark biography, Jane Addams becomes America's most admired and most hated woman—and wins the Nobel Peace Prize. Jane Addams (1860-1935) was a leading statesperson in an era when few imagined such possibilities for women. In this fresh interpretation, the first full biography of Addams in nearly forty years, Louise W. Knight shows Addams's boldness, creativity, and tenacity as she sought ways to put the ideals of democracy into action. Starting in Chicago as a co-founder of the nation's first settlement house, Hull House—a community center where people of all classes and ethnicities could gather—Addams became a grassroots organizer and a partner of trade unionists, women, immigrants, and African Americans seeking social justice.
About the Author
Louise (Lucy) W. Knight is a biographer living in Evanston, Illinois. In 2005 she published her first book CITIZEN: JANE ADDAMS AND THE STRUGGLE FOR DEMOCRACY (University of Chicago Press, 2005) , an in-depth exploration of Addams's formative years, through age 40. The book traces how she struggled to find a purpose in life and how her passion for democracy was deepened by experience. Knight's second book, a full life biography of Addams entitled JANE ADDAMS: SPIRIT IN ACTION, was published by W. W. Norton in 2010, and highlights her emergence as a leading political leader and her national and international struggles and achievements. Previously, Knight worked as a journalist in Washington, D.C., and as a fundraiser at Duke University, Wheaton College (Mass.) , and United South End Settlements in Boston. Beginning in 1993, when she founded Knight Consulting, she has worked as a consultant to nonprofits and foundations. For more information about her as an author, see www.louisewknight.com. For more about her as a consultant, see www.LKnightConsulting.com.
