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Jane Addams (1860-1935) was an American reformer, writer, lecturer, social philosopher, peace activist, and one of the most important public intellectuals of the Progressive Era. Born in Cedarville, Illinois, she was educated at Rockford Female Seminary and spent years searching for a useful public vocation at a time when educated women faced narrow professional options. Her travels in Europe, especially her visit to Toynbee Hall in London, helped inspire her vision of a settlement house rooted in shared life, social research, education, and democratic reform.In 1889, Addams co-founded Hull House in Chicago with Ellen Gates Starr. Hull House became one of the most famous settlement houses in the United States, serving immigrants, workers, women, children, and poor families while also becoming a center for social investigation and reform. Addams and her colleagues worked on issues including child labor, public health, housing, education, labor conditions, juvenile justice, recreation, women's rights, and immigrant support. Her work helped shape the development of social work, urban reform, sociology, and Progressive Era politics.Addams wrote widely on democracy, ethics, peace, labor, women's roles, and social obligation. Her books include Democracy and Social Ethics, Newer Ideals of Peace, The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets, Twenty Years at Hull-House, and The Long Road of Woman's Memory. She was also a major figure in the international peace movement and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931. Today she remains central to the history of American reform, feminist thought, social ethics, settlement work, peace activism, and the idea that democracy must be lived through institutions, neighborhoods, and daily responsibility.
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