SOURCE: "Jane Addams and William James on Alternatives to War," in Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 54, No. 2, April, 1993, pp. 241-54.

In the following essay, Schott contrasts the pacifism of William James with the much more radical anti-war views of Addams.

On the evening of 7 October 1904, some 500 members of the Universal Peace Congress attended a banquet in Boston. An evening of good food and conversation culminated in talks by nationally prominent peace advocates. The speakers that night included, among others, two individuals who had figured prominently in the anti-imperialism movement after the Spanish-American War: the well-respected and widely-known philosopher from Harvard University, William James, and one of the most prominent women in the United States and founder of the Hull House social settlement in Chicago, Jane Addams. Their talks differed in specifics but shared a common purpose. Both tried to articulate an alternative to the psychological allure...