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

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Terrence J. McDonald

Nearly Neighbors

Name: Nearly Neighbors
Price: 190.95 AUD
Availability: PreOrder
ISBN: 9780226849492

Jane Addams, Johnny Powers, and the Progressive Political Imagination

Terrence J. McDonald

$190.95

Hardback

Forthcoming
Pre-Order now

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English

University of Chicago Press
23 June 2026

History of the Americas; Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900; Regional government; Local history

Series: Historical Studies of Urban America

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.

By: Terrence J. McDonald
Imprint: University of Chicago Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
Weight: 454g
ISBN: 9780226849492
ISBN 10: 022684949X
Series: Historical Studies of Urban America
Pages: 312
Publication Date: 23 June 2026
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Preface Introduction: Hull House Has a Visitor Chapter One: The Death and Life of Frank Lawler . . . and the Alternative Chapter Two: The Perils of Little Preparation: Comprehending the Neighborhood and Vice Versa Chapter Three: Working the Ward, 1888–95 Chapter Four: Nativism Comes to Chicago: The School Fight, 1888–93 Chapter Five: Reform on the Move, 1893–96 Chapter Six: The Educational Campaign Against Johnny Powers (and for Jane Addams), 1896 Chapter Seven: The Last Campaign, 1898 Chapter Eight: The Reckonings . . . and After Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

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.

Reviews for Nearly Neighbors: Jane Addams, Johnny Powers, and the Progressive Political Imagination

Progressive reform has long been a lightning rod for historians. Was “Saint Jane” Addams the compassionate, selfless crusader her admirers portray or an ethnocentric agent of social control? Was her nemesis Johnny Powers, boss of Chicago’s Nineteenth Ward, a corrupt grifter or a pioneer of social services eventually, if poorly, provided by the welfare state? Terry McDonald’s meticulous research, even-handed judgments, and lively prose explode all such Manichean renderings. An unprecedentedly detailed, nuanced, and multi-dimensional portrait of public life in Chicago, Nearly Neighbors is an indispensable study of the inescapability of political conflict. -- James T. Kloppenberg, Harvard University ""Nearly Neighbors is an expert rethinking of both the renowned progressive reformer Jane Addams and her primary antagonist, prominent local pol Johnny Powers. The book is also a deeply thoughtful, even moving, reflection on the ethics of reform, democracy, and politics."" -- Robert D. Johnston, author of 'The Radical Middle Class: Populist Democracy and the Question of Capitalism in Progressive Era Portland, Oregon'