Erik Schneiderhan

The Size of Others' Burdens

Barack Obama, Jane Addams, and the Politics of Helping Others

• Gebundenes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

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.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Stanford University Press
• Seitenzahl: 264
• Erscheinungstermin: 27. Mai 2015
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 223mm x 144mm x 25mm
• Gewicht: 437g
• ISBN-13: 9780804789172
• ISBN-10: 0804789177
• Artikelnr.: 41753702

Autorenporträt

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.

Inhaltsangabe

Contents and Abstracts
1An 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 struggles with the dilemma of making a difference in
the world versus making a living. It concludes by tracing his trajectory
from New York to Chicago, where he would begin his community organizing
with the Developing Communities Project.
6A Big City with Big Problems
chapter abstract
In this chapter, the Chicago community work of Barack Obama is presented.
The chapter shows how his creativity and experimentalism helped the
Developing Communities Project make a difference in people's lives. It also
shows how Obama's efforts were stymied, illuminating his struggles to
empower community members with limited resources. It concludes with Obama's
decision to leave Chicago and attend Harvard Law School so that he might
make a difference on a larger scale.
7Balancing a Hard Head with a Big Heart
chapter abstract
This chapter spans several years in Obama's life-from his time at Harvard
to his return to Chicago as a political organizer at Project Vote! and his
experiences as a lawyer and University of Chicago lecturer. It shows his
efforts to balance his own individual goals with his desire to make a
difference in Chicago. And it shows how his new wife Michelle contributed
to the development of connections to Chicago elites, connections that
proved helpful as Obama decided to run for the Illinois State Senate. The
chapter concludes with a brief summary of the main ideas of the three Obama
chapters.
8Mixing on the Thronged and Common Road
chapter abstract
This chapter begins with a précis, briefly highlighting some key points of
the biographies of Addams and Obama after the time period examined in the
book. The chapter then returns to the theme of the American's Dilemma,
illustrating how Addams and Obama dealt with their everyday struggles to
balance their individual and collective goals. The chapter concludes with a
discussion of how the examples of Addams and Obama might inform our own
efforts to move beyond our own social dilemmas and contribute to community
growth.
Appendix: On Methods and Theory
chapter abstract
The appendix, more academic in tone, discusses the primary and secondary
sources for the data on Addams and Obama. It then moves on to a
presentation of the main theory underpinning the book's analysis, including
ideas from Sartre, Merton, Lynd, Dewey, and Sumner, to name but a few.