Jane Addams and the Chicago social justice movement, 1889-1912.
Item
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Title
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Jane Addams and the Chicago social justice movement, 1889-1912.
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Identifier
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AAI9924849
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identifier
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9924849
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Creator
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Scherman, Rosemarie Redlich.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Carol Berkin
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Date
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1999
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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History, United States | Women's Studies | Sociology, Industrial and Labor Relations | Biography
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Abstract
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For my reinterpretation of the life and thought of Jane Addams I have chosen to reexamine her within the context of the social justice or left-wing of the rising Chicago Progressive movement. This approach allows these Progressives to be seen as a smaller but distinct and dynamic movement within the larger reform coalition. Accordingly, it is possible to see Addams not as the singular legendary "Saintly Lady," or as self-serving "salon-keeper" or power monger, but as one among other outstanding women's movement activists who helped to change the nature of Progressivism and the course of American history.;In contrast to the other mainstream Progressives, who were focused on modernization of political and administrative structures and processes, social justice Progressives were motivated primarily by concerns for the inclusive human social, cultural and economic welfare of the majority working-class population in the chaotic industrial metropolis.;The two leading perspectives that distinguished Addams and her coalition were first, the need to extend to social and economic life the democratic structures and practices that had been limited to the political sphere, as in Addams' programmatic support of trade unions; and second, their call for a new social ethic to supplant the individualist outlook as being no longer adequate in modern society. In this undertaking the new social and labor history together with the new feminist women's history have been indispensable tools to augment the useful but overly-schematic approaches of organization historians.;An introductory chapter sketches the tripartite social justice Progressives among the rising business-oriented mainstream movement, seen against Chicago's economic, social and political background. Chapter Two presents Addams' and co-founder Ellen Starr's commitment to revitalizing urban social and cultural life within the framework of the Anglo-American settlement movement.;The next three chapters deal with the most important aspects of Addams' and her co workers' concerns for a national social safety net consonant with a democratic society's beliefs in social equality. This demanded extensions, through governmental facilities, of political, social and economic rights, increasingly restricted under expanding corporate industrialism. Through these undertakings Addams emerged as a leading social thinker and interpreter of working people's interests.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
