This is the first, full-length biography of Florence Nightingale told from a post-feminist perspective. Born into Victorian Britain’s elite, a brilliant, magnetic teenager decided to devote her life to the indigent sick by becoming a nurse. Florence’s family, especially her mother, opposed the decision, yet Nightingale insisted. Catapulted into the Crimean War, she brought order to the chaos of British military hospitals, but she could never forget her patients. Despite debilitating illness, she focused on preventing another Crimean calamity: the death of thousands due to avoidable causes. Hygienic army installations, sanitation for India, and creation of modern nursing owe much to Florence Nightingale. To Victorians, she personified their ideal of nurturing female. Hindsight provides a wider perspective. By creating a career for women that empowered them with economic independence, Florence Nightingale stands among the founders of modern feminism.

Former corporate executive Judith Lissauer Cromwell, is the author of three historical biographies about complex and famous women who shaped European history. She lives in New York.

Judith Lissauer Cromwell

Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 328
Bibliographic Info: 17 photos, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2013
pISBN: 978-0-7864-7092-1
eISBN: 978-0-7864-9319-7
Imprint: McFarland

Preface 1
Introduction 5
1. The Child Is Mother of the Woman 9
2. Seesaw 24
3. “My little plan” 35
4. “Idol of the man I adored” 45
5. A Taste of Freedom 53
6. The Penultimate Battle 64
7. The Prison Called Family 77
8. Harley Street 89
9. “There is but one person in England” 99
10. “The kingdom of hell” 110
11. “These gigantic hospitals” 120
12. Unparalleled Calamity 133
13. Balaclava Spring 144
14. Contest for the Crimea 156
15. Victory 166
16. “I can never forget” 175
17. The Royal Commission 185
18. “The welfare and efficiency of the British Army” 197
19. Annus Horribilis 209
20. “How People May Live and Not Die in India” 220
21. Nursing 232
22. Family Matters 245
23. “The People of India” 258
24. “The love that is so broad” 267
25. “A blessed life” 278
Afterword 287
Chapter Notes 291
Select Bibliography 310
Index 315