Democracy and Social Ethics - Softcover

Reseña del editor

"We are learning that a standard of social ethics is not attained by traveling a sequestered byway, but by mixing on the thronged and common road where all must turn out for one another, and at least see the size of one another's burdens." Jane Addams, Democracy and Social Ethics

"Miss Addams is clear. She has not been precipitate in the preparation of her book. She has reconsidered, corrected, and recorrected it, spoken with temperance and courtesy....As gentle, as patient, as sincere, and as astute as Jane Addams herself is the philosophy set forth in these pages....The process of Miss Addams' thought are interesting to thousands. The sense that none of us is living up to the best idea of democracy is upon each of us....Miss Addams is bound to receive a respectful hearing. As a leader who ever prays to lead aright, a sociologist who is willing to test her theories in a practical and personal way, a theorist who is not ashamed to own when she has been mistaken, a friend who will remain true to her friend no matter what may arise, and a person of leisure and power, who has the civic interest at heart, she has come to be prized as one of the chief of citizens." -Chicago Tribune

"Its pages are remarkably - we were about to say refreshingly - free from the customary academic limitations....In fact, are the result of actual experience in hand to hand contact with social problems....No more truthful description, for example, of the political 'boss' as he thrives today in our great cities has ever been written than is contained in Miss Addams' chapter on 'Political Reform.' The whole chapter will be accepted as a realistic picture of conditions as they are today in the city of Chicago. The same thing may be said of the other chapters of the book in regard to their presentations of social and economic facts." -Review of Reviews

"Too much emphasis cannot be laid upon the efficiency and inspiration afforded by these essays. 'Charitable Effort,' 'Filial Affections,' 'Household Adjustment,' 'Industrial Amelioration,' 'Educational Methods,' 'Political Reform,' are the topics treated in a masterly and revolutionary style. Miss Addams shatters some of our most cherished illusions upon the relations which should exist between the helper and the helped, between parent and child, mistress and maid, the members of a family, between the 'boss' and the community. She takes the subject entirely out of the realms of sentimentality, puts it upon a solid moral basis, and by a close and logical train of reasoning brings her conclusions home to the conscience and common sense of every member of the social structure. The book is startling, stimulating and intelligent." -Philadelphia Ledger

"Jane Addams, in her 'Democracy and Social Ethics,' remarks upon the paradox that is the workingman, the man who should apparently be most limited in his mental outlook, who, given a free hand, will always sketch out the largest program. This piece of acute social insight receives confirmation from a study of the labor movement at the antipodes. There as nowhere else has the workingman had a free hand." -New Outlook

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER II CHARITABLE EFFORT

CHAPTER III FILIAL RELATIONS

CHAPTER IV HOUSEHOLD ADJUSTMENT

CHAPTER V INDUSTRIAL AMELIORATION

CHAPTER VI EDUCATIONAL METHODS

CHAPTER VII POLITICAL REFORM

Biografía del autor

In 1889, Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr co-founded Hull House in Chicago, Illinois, the first settlement house in the United States. The house was named after Charles Hull, who built the building in 1856. When starting out, all of the funding for the Hull House came from the $50,000 estate she inherited after her father died. Later, the Hull House was sponsored by Helen Culver, the wealthy real estate agent who had initially leased the house to the women. Jane and Ellen were the first two occupants of the house, which would later be the residence of about 25 women. At its height, Hull House was visited each week by around 2000 people. Its facilities included a night school for adults, kindergarten classes, clubs for older children, a public kitchen, an art gallery, a coffeehouse, a gymnasium, a girls club, bathhouse, a book bindery, a music school, a drama group, a library, and labor-related divisions. Her adult night school was a forerunner of the continuing education classes offered by many universities today. In addition to making available services and cultural opportunities for the largely immigrant population of the neighborhood, Hull House afforded an opportunity for young social workers to acquire training. Eventually, the Hull House became a 13-building settlement, which included a playground and a summer camp.