Jane Addams

James Weber Linn was the nephew of Jane Addams. Anne Firor Scott, professor emerita of history at Duke University, is the author of Making the Invisible Woman Visible and other books.

"Fascinating, important, and readable." -- Booklist "No one of those myriad volumes which will inevitably be written will be simpler, more tender, than this life written by her nephew, James Weber Linn... [In] its honest lack of sentimentality, its painstaking care of detail, its setting down in complete frankness its facts, [it] is a rare one." -- Chicago Tribune "At once a meticulous life history, a descriptive socio-political commentary, and a sentimental tribute to the accomplishments of a woman who was not only a public figure of internation renown, but also aunt of and surrogate mother to the author... History was never this interesting or enlightening." -- Illinois Times "[Addams'] meaningful life spanned the tumultuous era of rapid industrialization and urban growth marked by the rise of numerous critical social and political issues... Addams stood in the midst of those issues, often as a leader and always as an exemplar of a responsible talented citizen with a social vision... With the many biographies and studies that have continued to be written about Addams ... why reprint a sixty-five-year-old work by a relative? The volume answers the question... Addams gave Linn access to her voluminous papers... Moreover ... Linn was well-qualified. He superbly covers the several aspects of Addams's life, the issues she confronted, and the influence she exerted upon society... Linn possessed an excellent writing style and sense of subject." -- David R. Wrone, Journal of Illinois History