President Barack Obama‘s picture book, Of Thee I Sing, arrived in bookstores and eBook format today. Random House has also released a promotional video about the book.
Here’s more about the book, from the release: “Obama’s poignant words and Loren Long’s stunning images together capture the promise of childhood and the personalities and achievements of the following Americans: Georgia O’Keeffe, Albert Einstein, Jackie Robinson, Sitting Bull, Billie Holiday, Helen Keller, Maya Lin, Jane Addams, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Neil Armstrong, Cesar Chavez, Abraham Lincoln and George Washington.”
President Obama’s attorney, Robert B. Barnett, handled the negotiations for the manuscript back in 2009. Knopf executive editor Michelle Frey edited the book. Children’s book artist Loren Long provided the illustrations.
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By Katherine van Wormer
She had no children, but for those of us who are social workers, she was the mother of us all. The social action focus, empathy with people in poverty, campaigning for human rights—these priorities of social work had their origins in the work and teachings of Jane Addams. Unlike the “friendly visitors” before her, Addams came to realize, in her work with immigrants and the poor, that poverty stems not from character defects but from social conditions that need to be changed. From the vantage point of the Chicago Hull House, the most famous settlement house of her day, Addams addressed such issues as political corruption, child labor, urban sanitation, women’s suffrage, and race relations. “We don’t expect to change human nature,” she said, “we people of peace, but we do expect to change human behavior.”
By the turn of the last century Jane Addams was the most famous woman in America. By the culmination of her career in 1931, she was awarded the Nobel Prize for her efforts for her international work following the destruction of World War I. But during a major part of her life, she was neither honored nor beloved.
Because of her staunch pacifism during World War I—a position which branded her a subversive and radical for the rest of her life—Addams rapidly fell out of favor. Just as she had been universally acclaimed prior to the war, Addams experienced a fall from grace unparalleled among public figures in U.S. history. She was hounded by the FBI. She was even given the dubious honor of having been given a life membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution and then subsequently to be expelled.
“If you are different from others, you need to act on that difference, if society is to advance.” This statement by Jane Addams succinctly sums up her life. Her award of the Nobel Peace Prize at the age of 71 was a proud moment for social workers, Quakers, and women the world over. The story of Jane Addams is one that can inspire us all.
Katherine van Wormer is Professor of Social Work at the University of Northern Iowa. She is also the author of Human Behavior and the Social Environment: Individuals and Families and co-author Human Behavior and the Social Environment: Groups, Communities, and Organizations.
For further reading:
Encyclopedia of Social Work
American National Biography Online
Chicago Tribune
80 Million Strong for Young American Jobs (a coalition to discuss the issues surrounding the growing unemployment rate among young people. Plus, more on how teens are competing with laid-off adults for summer jobs) (USA Today)
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What’s your favorite word? On Wordie.org, a website launched last year by John McGrath, you can post lists of “words you love, words you hate, whatever.” So far, about 4,800 users (”Wordies”) have posted a total of 264,000 words, 90,000 of which are unique. In this efflorescence of logophilia, what word strikes the fancy of the most Wordies? Topping the list of the “most wordied” words is schadenfreude, submitted by 250 users. This German loanword, defined by the New Oxford American Dictionary as “pleasure derived by someone from another person’s misfortune,” easily outpaces runners-up like quixotic, serendipity, loquacious, and plethora. (If defenestrate and defenestration joined forces, that handy term for throwing someone out a window would come in a close second.) What does it say about Web-savvy language lovers that the word they find most notable describes malicious mirth in the misery of others? Are we all just a bunch of sadists?
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