Size of Others'' Burdens - Barack Obama, Jane Addams, and the Politics of Helping Others

Zusatztext "How should we balance the pulls of individualism and community! of realism and idealism? This is the American dilemma. Erik Schneiderhan shows how two Americans-Jane Addams and Barack Obama-struggled to resolve this dilemma for themselves! and helps us all to think about how we each can respond creatively in our own lives. This book is a must read for thoughtful citizens." Informationen zum Autor Erik Schneiderhan teaches sociology at the University of Toronto. Before becoming an academic, he was a political activist, campaign worker, and policy analyst in New Hampshire. He spends much of his present time trying to deal with the competing pressures of parenting, teaching, and keeping track of the Boston Red Sox. Klappentext Erik Schneiderhan teaches sociology at the University of Toronto. Before becoming an academic, he was a political activist, campaign worker, and policy analyst in New Hampshire. He spends much of his present time trying to deal with the competing pressures of parenting, teaching, and keeping track of the Boston Red Sox. Zusammenfassung This book asks how people can act in the face of competing pressures-the American ideal of self-reliance and a communal value of helping those in need-and explores the stories of two famous community organizers, Jane Addams and Barack Obama, to develop present-day lessons for improving our communities. Inhaltsverzeichnis Contents and Abstracts1An American's Dilemma chapter abstract This chapter presents an overview of the book's main premise: that the struggle between promoting individual responsibility and helping others in the community has been a hallmark of American culture. It introduces the two main empirical subjects of the book-Jane Addams and Barack Obama-and paints in broad brushstrokes their shared successes and struggles as they tried to do community work in Chicago. 2The Right to Be Heard chapter abstract This chapter looks at the early life of Jane Addams before she founded Hull-House. It shows how her cultivation of privilege, her extensive travel, and her college education all contributed to her constructing a social self that did not conform to traditional gender norms. The chapter also sets the stage in Chicago by developing a portrait of existing charity organizations and showing how Addams and her friend Ellen Gates Starr launched a new and different way of helping others at Hull-House. 3The Chicago Scheme chapter abstract This chapter starts with the opening of Hull-House in 1889 and goes on to illuminate some of the key successes and struggles of Jane Addams as she tried to help her neighbors in the Nineteenth Ward of Chicago. It shows how Addams's independent and creative work shifted in the early 1890s to include charity organization methods, a more hard-nosed approach to helping others. 4A Clash of Ethical Standards chapter abstract This chapter begins in 1894, with Jane Addams struggling to meet the needs of the seemingly endless number of neighbors requiring her help. Hull-House did not have the capacity to address the needs of the city so Addams helped found the Chicago Bureau of Charities (CBC). Her work on behalf of the CBC is contrasted with her efforts at Hull-House, emphasizing her dilemmas as she tried to adjudicate between two very different approaches to helping others. The chapter also chronicles Addams's increasing involvement with Chicago elites, as she entered into politics and needed to raise funds to support her charitable work. It concludes with a brief summary of the three Addams chapters. 5Wake Up! It's Morning in America chapter abstract This chapter looks at the early life of Barack Obama. It shows how his childhood in Indonesia and Hawaii, his elite education, and his extensive travel contributed to his constructing a social self and line of action that did not conform to traditional social expectations. The chapter illuminates Obama's...

Product details

• Authors: Schneiderhan Erik, Erik Schneiderhan
• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 27.05.2015
• EAN: 9780804789172
• ISBN: 978-0-8047-8917-2
• No. of pages: 264
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political system