photo of Jane Addams and Barack Obama

New book by UTM prof on what we can learn from the failures of Barack Obama, Jane Addams

Blake Eligh

The path to greatness is filled with unforeseen challenges, watershed moments and changes of plan. This holds true even for great figures, according to a new book by U of T Mississauga sociology professor Erik Schneiderhan. The Size of Others’ Burdens: Barack Obama, Jane Addams, and the Politics of Helping Others traces the parallel biographies of two major figures in American history—pioneering social reformer Jane Addams and U.S. President Barack Obama—as they grapple with what Schneiderhan calls ‘the American dilemma.’

At first glance, the famous Chicagoans may appear to be on parallel paths to success. They each achieved lasting notoriety for their accomplishments—Addams for founding Hull-House and laying the foundations of modern social work, and Obama for becoming the first African-American president of the United States. They also share an impressive list of achievements as social activists, university lecturers, orators, politicians and winners of the Nobel Peace Prize.

photo of Erik Schneiderhan
But while Addams and Obama are remembered for their achievements, Schneiderhan says, it’s also informative to look at how they handled adversity along the way. Both faced discrimination—she was working against gender norms, and he was working against race, personal loss (each lost their father at the same point in their lives) and learning to navigate access to power—all while figuring out how they could contribute to the betterment of society.

“Obama and Addams weren’t on a rocket ship trajectory towards greatness,” he says. “They felt a pull between personal commitments—writing, travel, family—and doing something meaningful in their communities. They couldn’t do it all.”

“That tension is the American and also Canadian dilemma,” Schneiderhan says. “On one hand, we have the demands of communitarianism and collectivism, and on the other we have the ideal of individualism. How can you be a good parent, do well in your job, be healthy and fit, and still be a model volunteer and make a difference in your community? We’re told to do these things by our culture, but they’re irreconcilable.”

book jacket for The Size of Others' Burdens
For Addams and Obama, moving forward often meant abandoning plans, exploring alternatives and accepting compromise.  “In his early days, Obama was penniless and sleeping on friends’ couches. He tried to work for Ralph Nader, but quit because he hated it and didn’t make enough money. He worked in business, but hated the feeling that he was selling out,” Schneiderhan says. “Addams had wanted to attend university, but was blocked by her father and the social expectations of women at the time.”

“Travel is another big part of their stories—connecting with other people in different parts of the world and seeing other things opened them up to new ideas,” Schneiderhan says. “Obama lived all over the globe in his pre-political days, with his anthropologist mother in Indonesia, and in Kenya where he connected with his father’s family.” Addams toured Europe, where she experienced a paradigm shift through criticism from Leo Tolstoy and where she discovered British settlement experiment Toynbee House upon which she would later model Hull-House in Chicago. “Her whole life course was changed by that trip,” Schneiderhan says. “For a woman in the 1880s, it was quite remarkable.”

“Obama and Addams show us is the value of social connections,” Schneiderhan says. “As they became political, both Addams and Obama ended up revising their earlier ideals, accepting support from political elites and moving away from their earlier creative work so that they might effect change on a larger scale. They weren’t able to go with their initial impetus—to help, for the sake of helping, without any strings attached. But this shows that the more one connects with other people, the more avenues open up.”

The struggles of Obama and Addams can teach us a great deal about handling our own obstacles and reconciling that ‘American dilemma’, he says. “They got stuck. They didn’t always know how to move forward, but we can see how they worked things out to move forward,” Schneiderhan says. “Limitations made each choose a different path when presented with an obstacle. There were false starts and that’s okay. That shows that there isn’t a clear path to greatness and destiny, and that’s comforting.”

“We may find it hard to see how we might build a career and a family and still find time to do something that matters, but by examining the development of Obama and Addams, we see that anyone can help and make a difference.”