Allen F. Davis – författare

Although much has been written about elite Philadelphians, only in recent decades have historians paid attention to the Jews and working-class blacks, the immigrant Irish, Italians, and Poles who settled in the city and gave such sections as Moyamensing, Southwark, South Philadelphia, and Kensington their vitality. In this classic of social and ethnic history, the authors draw on census schedules, court records, city directories, and tax records as well as newspaper files and other sources to give a picture of the ways in which these less-privileged groups of Philadelphians lived. What emerges is a picture of Philadelphia radically different from the conventional portrait of a staid old city.

Books about Jane Addams—founder of Hull House, social reformer, suffragist, pacifist, and one of the most greatly admired women in American history—come and go, but Allen Davis's account of her life, work, and ideas remains the standard biography. "A distinguished work of scholarship, mature, incisive....Davis has written not only the best study of Jane Addams but perhaps the best biography of any great American woman."—William L. O'Neill. "The first book that systematically and persuasively separates the real woman from the myth. It will be indispensable to anyone interested in the subject or the period."—Rosemarie Scherman, New York Times Book Review. "An important work, especially valuable for its cultural analysis and its sane, careful approach to the biographer's task."—Alonzo L. Hamby, History. "Detailed and well researched, this account...is the best thing written on Jane Addams I have seen."—Doris Grumbach, New Republic. "An impressively researched, perceptive biography." —Gertrude Benson, Philadelphia Inquirer.