Join Amazon Prime and ship Two-Day for free and Overnight for $3.99. Already a member? Sign in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought
In Hospital and Camp: The Civil War Through the Eyes of Its Doctors and Nurses by Harold Elk Straubing |
by Hannah Ropes
|
by Kate Cumming
|
by C. Keith Wilbur
|
Doctors in Blue: The Medical History of the Union Army in the Civil War by George Worthington Adams |
Editorial Reviews
From The New England Journal of Medicine
Jane Schultz has written a well-researched book that tells a compelling story. First-person accounts interspersed throughout the book lend immediacy to the war that took place nearly 150 years ago. The author transports the reader through time so effectively that the sights and smells of Civil War hospitals become real. On the basis of this book's depiction of women's fight to serve patients despite the hostility of Civil War-era surgeons, it seems clear that the problems of contemporary nurses have a long history. Throughout history, female nurses have dealt with being invisible, discounted, and devalued. During the Civil War, when nursing was viewed as domestic work, nurses did not seem threatening, which eased their entrance into the "military medical arena." Paradoxically, this move hampered their autonomy and virtually eliminated any claim to authority they might have desired. Whether black or white, Southern or Northern, nurse or laundress, the women who toiled in hospitals -- there were 20,000 of them -- had to deal with the hubris and not-uncommon state of intoxication of surgeons, the contempt of generals, and the challenge of working with others from different backgrounds. This was on top of dealing with the filth, lack of supplies (including food), mosquitoes, bad weather, floods, driving accidents, and, for most, lack of any formal nursing education. Social norms during the Civil War era were not kind to women who exposed themselves to the horrors of war by working in hospitals. Southern women, especially, were criticized for jeopardizing their reputations. However, women did the challenging work for many reasons. Some were left with no means of support when their husbands went to war, so they worked for undependable wages. Women of higher social classes felt that it was demeaning to accept pay for their work, so many worked as volunteers. After the war, soldiers and the widows, fathers, and brothers of fallen soldiers were included in pension legislation. The Army Nurses Pension Act of 1892 broke with tradition in that it supported the independence of women by authorizing pensions to women who earned them. Even so, it was difficult for many nurses to prove their service during the war. Many did not have the means to hire a lawyer to plead their cases, whereas others were illiterate or ignorant of the law. Widows of dead soldiers had a much easier time collecting pensions than did nurses who served. Black women had the hardest time proving their service. White nurses often used their supervision of black workers to buttress their claims, but the white nurses were much less likely to assist black nurses in claiming their pensions. Much has been written about the Civil War, but this book is unique in that it scrutinizes the war through the "lens of gender." Schultz's treatment of the subject of women who worked in the hospitals of the Civil War is neither sentimental nor lacking in appreciation of their heroism. Loretta P. Higgins, R.N., Ed.D.
Copyright © 2005 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved. The New England Journal of Medicine is a registered trademark of the MMS. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Review
"Attentive to sectional, religious, class, and racial differences. . . . A nuanced and thoughtful interpretation of women at the front." -- Journal of Southern History
"[A] meticulously researched, clearly reasoned, and engagingly written account. . . . Her work deserves a wide readership." -- Journal of American History --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
See all Editorial Reviews
Jane Schultz has written a well-researched book that tells a compelling story. First-person accounts interspersed throughout the book lend immediacy to the war that took place nearly 150 years ago. The author transports the reader through time so effectively that the sights and smells of Civil War hospitals become real. On the basis of this book's depiction of women's fight to serve patients despite the hostility of Civil War-era surgeons, it seems clear that the problems of contemporary nurses have a long history. Throughout history, female nurses have dealt with being invisible, discounted, and devalued. During the Civil War, when nursing was viewed as domestic work, nurses did not seem threatening, which eased their entrance into the "military medical arena." Paradoxically, this move hampered their autonomy and virtually eliminated any claim to authority they might have desired. Whether black or white, Southern or Northern, nurse or laundress, the women who toiled in hospitals -- there were 20,000 of them -- had to deal with the hubris and not-uncommon state of intoxication of surgeons, the contempt of generals, and the challenge of working with others from different backgrounds. This was on top of dealing with the filth, lack of supplies (including food), mosquitoes, bad weather, floods, driving accidents, and, for most, lack of any formal nursing education. Social norms during the Civil War era were not kind to women who exposed themselves to the horrors of war by working in hospitals. Southern women, especially, were criticized for jeopardizing their reputations. However, women did the challenging work for many reasons. Some were left with no means of support when their husbands went to war, so they worked for undependable wages. Women of higher social classes felt that it was demeaning to accept pay for their work, so many worked as volunteers. After the war, soldiers and the widows, fathers, and brothers of fallen soldiers were included in pension legislation. The Army Nurses Pension Act of 1892 broke with tradition in that it supported the independence of women by authorizing pensions to women who earned them. Even so, it was difficult for many nurses to prove their service during the war. Many did not have the means to hire a lawyer to plead their cases, whereas others were illiterate or ignorant of the law. Widows of dead soldiers had a much easier time collecting pensions than did nurses who served. Black women had the hardest time proving their service. White nurses often used their supervision of black workers to buttress their claims, but the white nurses were much less likely to assist black nurses in claiming their pensions. Much has been written about the Civil War, but this book is unique in that it scrutinizes the war through the "lens of gender." Schultz's treatment of the subject of women who worked in the hospitals of the Civil War is neither sentimental nor lacking in appreciation of their heroism. Loretta P. Higgins, R.N., Ed.D.
Copyright © 2005 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved. The New England Journal of Medicine is a registered trademark of the MMS. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Review
"Attentive to sectional, religious, class, and racial differences. . . . A nuanced and thoughtful interpretation of women at the front." -- Journal of Southern History
"[A] meticulously researched, clearly reasoned, and engagingly written account. . . . Her work deserves a wide readership." -- Journal of American History --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
See all Editorial Reviews
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Inside This Book
(learn more)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
First Sentence:
A widely reproduced photograph of three women in dark dresses, white aprons, and beehivelike hats has been used by modern historians as evidence that young, uniformed nurses served in military hospitals during the Civil War. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
female relief workers, regimental women, female hospital workers, special diet kitchens, patriotic toil, pension file, pension applicants, triumphal narrative, contraband women, pension officials, black laundresses, war nursing, hospitalized soldiers, convalescent camp, army nurses, convalescent soldiers, postwar work, pension act, ward masters, hospital life, sanitary commission, war nurse Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Clara Barton, Kate Cumming, Dorothea Dix, Sea Islands, Amy Morris Bradley, African American, Pension Bureau, South Carolina, Emily Parsons, Harriet Eaton, Fannie Beers, Armory Square, Carlisle Barracks, Juliet Opie Hopkins, Union Hotel, Louisa May Alcott, Mary Livermore, Phoebe Yates Pember, Army Military History Institute, Christian Commission, City Point, Elvira Powers, Esther Hill Hawks, Jane Hoge New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
A widely reproduced photograph of three women in dark dresses, white aprons, and beehivelike hats has been used by modern historians as evidence that young, uniformed nurses served in military hospitals during the Civil War. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
female relief workers, regimental women, female hospital workers, special diet kitchens, patriotic toil, pension file, pension applicants, triumphal narrative, contraband women, pension officials, black laundresses, war nursing, hospitalized soldiers, convalescent camp, army nurses, convalescent soldiers, postwar work, pension act, ward masters, hospital life, sanitary commission, war nurse Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Clara Barton, Kate Cumming, Dorothea Dix, Sea Islands, Amy Morris Bradley, African American, Pension Bureau, South Carolina, Emily Parsons, Harriet Eaton, Fannie Beers, Armory Square, Carlisle Barracks, Juliet Opie Hopkins, Union Hotel, Louisa May Alcott, Mary Livermore, Phoebe Yates Pember, Army Military History Institute, Christian Commission, City Point, Elvira Powers, Esther Hill Hawks, Jane Hoge New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 111
books:
See all 111 books this book cites
4
books
cite this book:
- Crusader and Feminist: Letters of Jane Grey Swisshelm, 1858-1865 (Pioneers of the Woman's Movement) by Jane Grey Cannon Swisshelm on 6 pages
- Disarming the Nation: Women's Writing and the American Civil War (Women in Culture and Society Series) by Elizabeth Young on 5 pages
- My Story Of The War: The Civil War Memoirs Of The Famous Nurse, Relief Organizer, And Suffragette by Mary A. Livermore on 5 pages
- Private Woman, Public Stage: Literary Domesticity in Nineteenth-Century America by Mary Kelley on 4 pages
- The Imagined Civil War: Popular Literature of the North and South, 1861-1865 (Civil War America) by Alice Fahs in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
See all 111 books this book cites
- No Constitutional Right to Be Ladies: Women and the Obligations of Citizenship by Linda K. Kerber in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- The Political Work of Northern Women Writers and the Civil War, 1850-1872 (Civil War America) by Lyde Cullen Sizer in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Divided Houses: Gender and the Civil War by Catherine Clinton in Back Matter
- Nursing History Review, Volume 12, 2004: Official Publication of the American Association for the History of Nursing by Patricia D'Antonio RN PhD FAAN on page 208
Books on Related Topics
(learn more)
|
What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?
 |
66% buy the item featured on this page: Women at the Front: Hospital Workers in Civil War America $19.95 |
 |
12% buy To Bind Up the Wounds: Catholic Sister Nurses in the U.S. Civil War |
 |
9% buy Civil War Nurse: The Diary and Letters of Hannah Ropes $12.71 |
 |
8% buy Kate: The Journal of a Confederate Nurse $14.93 |
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Help others find this product — tag it for Amazon search
No one has tagged this product for Amazon search yet. Why not be the first to suggest a search for which it should appear?
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
 |
Customer Discussions
Beta (What's this?)
New! See all customer communities, and bookmark your communities to keep track of them.
|
This product's forum
(0 discussions)
Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Active discussions in related forums
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Product Information from the Amapedia Community
Beta (What's this?)Be the first person to add an article about this item at Amapedia.com.
› See featured Amapedia.com articles
So You'd Like to...
Look for Similar Items by Category
- Books > History > Americas > United States > 19th Century
- Books > History > Americas > United States > Civil War
- Books > Medicine > Special Topics > History
- Books > Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Special Groups > African-American Studies
- Books > Nonfiction > Women's Studies > History
$10 Instant Savings |
Dive into Summer Reading |
|||||||||
|
Your Recent History
(What's this?)|
You have no recently viewed items or searches.
After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in. Look to the right column to find helpful suggestions for your shopping session. |
Continue shopping: Top Sellers
| ||||
| ||
| ||
| ||
| ||
| ||
