Nearly Neighbors - Jane Addams, Johnny Powers, and the Progressive Political Imagination

An engaging look at the encounter between Jane Addams, Hull House settlement co-founder and Progressive reformer, and Alderman Johnny Powers.

Jane Addams was full of courage and goodwill when she opened Hull House in Chicago's Nineteenth Ward in 1889. However, she failed to understand that her immigrant neighbors had been well-organized around mostly Catholic churches and schools for decades before her arrival. Her ultimate political rival, Johnny Powers, grew up in this culture but was no ethnic hero or deep political thinker. Nearly Neighbors is the first book to provide a contextualized history of their encounter, embedding it in the social and political culture and structures of Chicago and the Nineteenth Ward in the 1890s.

Terrence J. McDonald provides a crucial analysis of two pivotal figures in Chicago's political history, in part by providing the first detailed assessment of Powers's life and practices, but also by demonstrating Addams's misconception of him and her neighbors--and why it matters for understanding her Progressive work overall. In both her political work and writings, Addams saw her ethnic neighbors as bundles of economic need, rather than bearers of ethnic culture. At the same time, she was recruited by elite allies into causes that appeared to be opposed by her neighbors. These views and practices permitted Powers to win in their climactic political battle in 1898 simply by claiming to be the neighborhood defender against Addams and her "downtown" allies. Nearly Neighbors offers a new way of understanding Addams and the complicated legacy of her famous political work and writings.

About the author

Terrence J. McDonald is the Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of History at the University of Michigan, where he was formerly the dean of the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. He is the author of The Parameters of Urban Fiscal Policy: Socioeconomic Change and Political Culture in San Francisco, 1860-1906.

Product details

• Authors: Terrence J. McDonald, Terrence J McDonald
• Publisher: University Presses
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 12.05.2026
• EAN: 9780226849492
• ISBN: 978-0-226-84949-2
• No. of pages: 320
• Weight: 454 g
• Illustrations: 11 halftones
• Series: Historical Studies of Urban America
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political administration; USA, Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900, HISTORY / United States / 19th Century, POLITICAL SCIENCE / American Government / Local, c 1800 to c 1900, 19th century, c 1800 to c 1899, United States of America, USA, History of the Americas, US Midwest, Regional, state and other local government, Regional government