Jane Addams Critical Essay | Critical Essay by J. O. C. Phillips

Critical Essay by J. O. C. Phillips

SOURCE: "The Education of Jane Addams," in History of Education Quarterly, Vol. 14, Spring, 1974, pp. 49-67.

In the following essay, Phillips identifies Addams's intellectual forebears, a group that ranges from Abraham Lincoln to Auguste Comte.

Perhaps as a final tribute to a nineteenth century individualism soon to be extinguished by the New Deal, Americans of the late twenties and early thirties frequently amused themselves in endless polls and competitions to find America's greatest men and women. The definitive order of greatness was never discovered, but in every poll Jane Addams did well. Included in Mark Howe's list of six outstanding Americans, she received Good Housekeeping's seal of approval as the greatest living American woman. But in 1933 the National Council of Women failed her. They declared her the second greatest American Women. First was Mary Baker Eddy.¹ Jane Addams, who treasured such symbols such of fame, well have felt...
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