Jane Addams in Muckrakers & Reformers
Jane Addams (1860–1935) was a Progressive reformer and the most prominent advocate for the settlement house movement, which was dedicated to improving social conditions for immigrants and other residents of urban slums. In 1931, she became the first American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 1889, Addams and her friend Ellen Gates Starr co-founded Hull House in Chicago to provide social and educational services to the predominantly immigrant residents of the city's crowded working-class tenements. In 1910, she published Twenty Years at Hull House, a significant book that recounted her experiences in Chicago and her thoughts on ethical aspects of life in the Progressive Era. Addams' writing invoked several key elements of the "social gospel," a Protestant-based philosophy that determined to bring Christian morality into all aspects of society and the economy.
She was a leading supporter of Theodore Roosevelt when he ran for president in 1912 on the Progressive (or "Bull Moose") Party ticket. Addams also founded the Woman's International League for Peace and Freedom before winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931.