Say Little, Do Much: Nursing, Nuns, and Hospitals in the Nineteenth Century (Studies in Health, Illness, and Caregiving) [Hardcover]

Sioban Nelson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0812236149 | ISBN-13: 978-0812236149 | Publication Date: July 30, 2001 | Edition: 1

In the nineteenth century, more than a third of American hospitals were established and run by women with religious vocations. In Say Little, Do Much, Sioban Nelson casts light on the work of these women's religious communities. According to Nelson, the popular view that nursing invented itself in the second half of the nineteenth century is historically inaccurate and dismissive of the major advances in the care of the sick as a serious and skilled activity, an activity that originated in seventeenth-century France with Vincent de Paul's Daughters of Charity.

In this comparative, contextual, and critical work, Nelson demonstrates how modern nursing developed from the complex interplay of the Catholic emancipation in Britain and Ireland, the resurgence of the Irish Church, the Irish diaspora, and the mass migrations of the German, Italian, and Polish Catholic communities to the previously Protestant strongholds of North America and mainland Britain. In particular, Nelson follows the nursing Daughters of Charity through the French Revolution and the Second Empire, documenting the relationship that developed between the French nursing orders and the Irish Catholic Church during this period. This relationship, she argues, was to have major significance for the development of nursing in the English-speaking world.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A convincing picture."—New York Times

"The most significant contribution to the literature on nursing history in decades."—Journal of Community Nursing

"Required reading for all nurse historians who seek to understand the difficult and complex role of religious women who served nursing prior to our modern era."—Nursing History Review

"Well-researched, scholarly, clearly written, and nicely analyzed, this work makes a significant addition to the historiography of nursing."—Choice

About the Author

Sioban Nelson is Senior Lecturer in the School of Postgraduate Nursing at The University of Melbourne.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press; 1 edition (July 30, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812236149
• ISBN-13: 978-0812236149
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,664,600 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nurses Create American Hospital System, December 17, 2001

By 

Suzanne Gordon (Arlington, Ma USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Say Little, Do Much: Nursing, Nuns, and Hospitals in the Nineteenth Century (Studies in Health, Illness, and Caregiving) (Hardcover)

When we think of hospitals, we think medicine, doctors, surgery, not nurses and nursing. But this well-written book highlights the role that nurses played in the creation of the American hospital system. During the 19th century, nursing nuns from Ireland, France, Germany, Quebec, and Scandinavia traveled to the new world and set up hospitals all across America. They raised the money for hospital construction, gathered community support, went into business arrangements with medicine, thus giving doctors the opportunity to extend their practice into hospitals. They also established commercial arrangements with the companies that moved across the American frontier, so that the sisters could provide services to the workers who opened up the American continent.

Nelson tells this story in riveting detail. She explains how religious devotion fueled these women to overcome tremendous social and physical obstacles, yet also made them invisible to the rest of society, including, ironically, much of nursing . Her exploration debunks the traditional heroic nursing narrative, which focuses almost exclusively on the accomplishments of Florence Nightingale and tells mainly the English nursing story. Her characters are Irish, German, French, and Scandinavian immigrant women. They are Catholic nuns and Protestant deaconesses. More than this, Nelson demystifies the individualistic narrative which tends to attribute the creation of the profession to stellar individuals acting on their own. Nelson's story is of women working in community to create the hospital system.
This book is, of course, of interest to nurses. But it deserves a much wider audience. Scholars and observors of women's history will find this book an invaluable addition to the literature on the contributions of women to the development of social institutions. Similarly, anyone intereted in health policy and the history of the American hospital and health care system will find this book enlightening.