Louise (Lucy) W. Knight

Louise (Lucy) W. Knight is an author, lecturer, and historian. She has written two biographies of Jane Addams. In 2005 she published Citizen: Jane Addams and the Struggle for Democracy about Addams’s formative years. Her second book, the first full life biography of Addams in 37 years, is Jane Addams: Spirit in Action (2010). She is a long-time visiting scholar in the Gender and Sexuality Studies Program at Northwestern University.

Knight’s writings have been published in the New York Times Book Review, the Wall Street Journal, the Nation website, CNN.com, and the Chicago Tribune. She lectures often at universities, historical societies. and academic conferences. She has appeared on public television, C-Span Book TV, and various radio stations. In her lectures, booktalks, and other writings, she explores the connections between early and current progressive civic action.