Jane Addams
2 books
- Democracy and Social Ethics non-fictionAddams keeps catching well-meaning people (charity visitors, reform-minded daughters, herself) being condescending, and shows why the corrupt ward boss who pays for neighbors' funerals earns real loyalty. It reads like a very smart friend gently dismantling your assumptions, though the prose takes patience.
- Addams writes like someone thinking out loud about why comfortable idealism wasn't enough, and her account of ditching the "snare of preparation" to actually move in among Chicago's immigrant poor still stings a little. Slow and earnest in places, but her honesty about her own mistakes keeps it human.