Louise W. Knight
Jane Addams: Spirit in Action
Reformer Jane Addams is often dismissively praised as a secular “saint,” but in the early twentieth century she was the nation’s leading political woman and one of its most prominent spokespersons for progressive causes. Co-founder of two major civil rights groups – the NAACP and the ACLU – Addams served on the boards of both until her death. A lifelong pacifist, Addams was widely criticized for her beliefs at the cusp of WWI, but in 1931 she became the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace prize. In her new book and second biography of Addams, Louise W. Knight provides for the first time a complete picture of how Addams came to achieve such huge influence and the role that her moral integrity played in that achievement.
