The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets -- her favorite of her own books -- establishes Addams as an accomplished writer as well as a reformer. In this compact volume she examines the causes for the discontent of youth in the city, chiding educators for their "persistent blindness to youth's most obvious needs".

Addams argues for the importance of providing direction and focus -- for example, through public recreation, practical education, and experiences in the arts -- for the pent-up energies of young men and women. She takes a realistic view of their basic social and sexual drives and their disaffection and alienation in an industrial world. At the same time, she rejects the hereditary explanations for delinquency that prevailed in her day.

The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets is suffused with Addams's abiding compassion and tempered with her pragmatism and humor. Allen F. Davis's introduction provides a biographical profile of Addams and a commentary on her importance as a writer and a social activist.