Twenty Years at Hull-House is Jane Addams's graphic account of her famed settlement house in Chicago's West Side slums. Covering the years 1889-1909, a time when America was fired with fear of subversives and suspicion of foreigners, this books stands as the immortal testament of a woman who lived and worked among the immigrant settlers, the sweat-shop toilers, the unwed mothers, the hungry, the aged, the sick, to show them in practice what others...

Americans have a fierce spirit of individualism. We pride ourselves on self-reliance, on bootstrapping our way to success. Yet, we also believe in helping those in need, and we turn to our neighbors in times of crisis. The tension between these competing values is evident, and how we balance between these competing values holds real consequences for community health and well-being. In his new book, The Size of Others' Burdens, Erik Schneiderhan asks...

Jane Addams was the first American woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. This biography, covering the first half of Addams's life, reveals in detail her development as a political activist and social philosopher--we observe the powerful mind of a woman encountering the radical ideas of her age. Addams, a child of a wealthy family, longed for a life of larger purpose. After receiving an inheritance, she moved to Chicago in 1889 to co-found Hull House,...

Industrialization, an influx of immigrant labor, and the spread of city slums, together with a lack of opportunity for the first generation of college women, contributed to the rise of social settlements. Hull-House brought help and hope to impoverished workers, while providing employment for residents through such services as a kindergarten, evening classes, music school, and gymnasium. Confronted with the harsh living conditions of neighboring women...