Jane Addams was the first American woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. This biography, covering the first half of Addams's life, reveals in detail her development as a political activist and social philosopher--we observe the powerful mind of a woman encountering the radical ideas of her age. Addams, a child of a wealthy family, longed for a life of larger purpose. After receiving an inheritance, she moved to Chicago in 1889 to co-found Hull House, the city's first settlement house--a neighborhood center for education and social gatherings As Addams learned of the abject working conditions in American factories, the unchecked power wielded by employers, the impact of corrupt local politics on city services, and the intolerable limits placed on women by their lack of voting rights, she was transformed: she came to understand that the national ideal of democracy was also a mandate for civic activism.--From publisher description.

Part I: The given life, 1860-88. Self-reliance, 1822-60 -- Three mothers, 1860-73 -- Dreams, 1873-77 -- Ambition, 1877-81 -- Failure, 1881-83 -- Culture, 1883-86 -- Crisis, 1886-88 -- Part II: The chosen life, 1889-99. Chicago, 1889 -- Halsted Street, 1889-91 -- Fellowship, 1892 -- Baptism, 1893 -- Cooperation, 1893-94 -- Claims, 1894 -- Justice, 1895 -- Democracy, 1896-98 -- Ethics, 1898-99 -- Afterword: scholarship and Jane Addams.