Overview

This book studies the negative stereotypes around the women who worked as sick nurses in this period and contrasts them with the lived experience of both domestic and institutional nursing staff. Furthermore, it integrates nursing by men into the broader history of care as a constant if little-recognised presence. It finds that women and men undertook caring work to the best of their ability, and often performed well, despite multiple threats to nurse reputations on the grounds of gender norms and social status. Chapters consider nursing in the home, in general hospitals, in specialist institutions like the Royal Chelsea Hospital and asylums, plus during wartime, illuminated by multiple accounts of individual nurses. In these settings, it employs the sociological concept of 'dirty work' to contextualise the challenges to nurses and nursing identities.

Full Product Details

9781526178527

Table of Contents

Reviews

'There is a huge lacuna in the historiography of the history of pre-reform nursing and nurses in England so Alannah Tomkins’ new book would be welcomed in any event. However, this book is a more than a simple gap-filler: it is a treasure trove of information and analysis which makes use of a dizzying array of primary sources and archival material to create a picture of nursing in this era. In the process Alannah has challenged the few previous attempts to investigate the subject, which are primarily based on post-reform writers with their own agendas, and as a result she is able to overturn existing stereotypes of these nurses as slovenly drunkards with a cruel streak. The book is worth reading for the bibliography alone.' Sue Hawkins, UK Association for the History of Nursing -- .

Author Information

Alannah Tomkins is a Professor of Social History at Keele University.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available