"Jane Addams is synonymous in the American imagination with Hull-House, the legendary Chicago institution she founded, and from which she helped a generation of poor immigrants carve new lives for themselves in the midst of a desolate urban landscape. Yet as Jean Bethke Elshtain argues in this eagerly anticipated new interpretation of Addams' life and work, Addams' influence on American life and politics was far more profound than previous biographers have recognized.

In addition to her pioneering work with Chicago's needy, Addams was a fascinating intellectual figure, whose voluminous writings on nearly every major issue of her day continue to speak to the complexities of politics and moral duty in American public life. Among the themes Elshtain explores are Addams' embrace of "social feminism" and her challenge to the usual cleavage between "conservative" and "liberal" - themes Elshtain brilliantly explores in her own writings.

Elshtain describes how the seemingly mundane problems Addams faced in running the Hull-House home and school would later inspire some of her most brilliant efforts in international diplomacy during the First World War and became the foundation for her vision of a humane and powerful nation."--BOOK JACKET.