A New Conscience and an Ancient Evil (Paperback)

Jane Addams (1860 1935) was a woman dedicated to helping those less fortunate. Her work at the famed Hull House in Chicago was a frontrunner in social reform. Jane Addams also wrote Democracy and Social Ethics, Newer Ideals of Peace The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets and Twenty Years at Hull-House. A New Conscience and an Ancient Evil was written after Addams saw the many reports from the 20 field officers of the Juvenile Protective Association of Chicago whose main office was next to Hull House. Addams saw the dangers implicit in city conditions and of the allurements which are designedly placed around many young girls in order to draw them into an evil life. Addams goes on to say I read the original documents in a series of special investigations made by the Association on dance halls, theatres, amusement parks, lake excursion boats, petty gambling, the home surroundings of one hundred Juvenile Court children and the records of four thousand parents who clearly contributed to the delinquency of their own families. The Association also collected the personal histories of two hundred department-store girls, of two hundred factory girls, of two hundred immigrant girls, of two hundred office girls, and of girls employed in one hundred hotels and restaurants. Jane Adams hoped that this book would increase the social awareness of the general public.