American Nursing: Neighborhood Work and National Mission

FAIN: FA-53834-08

Patricia O'Brien D'Antonio
University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA 19104-6205)

I seek support for a book that examines the historical experiences of nurses as a way to consider how women from different class, race, and geographic backgrounds defined their work and lived their lives. I build upon a small but influential body of scholarship that explores the intermingled experiences of women's home work, care work, and paid work. By more broadly defining the work of nurses and by situating nurses at the nexus of powerful ideas about gender, race, class, and professional work, I argue that individuals chose nursing because of both the work and the meaning a nursing identity brought to lives lived within families and local communities at both particular moments and over the course of a lifetime. In exploring these historical nurses' lives, my book offers a new and unique perspective on how women became empowered participants in constructing consequential lives, supporting their families, and participating in their communities' social world.

Media Coverage

Book of the Year Award (Media Coverage)
Publication: American Journal of Nursing
Date: 8/24/2011
Abstract: Won the 2011 American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year (History and Policy) Award

Lavinia Dock Award (Media Coverage)
Publication: American Association for the History of Nursing
Date: 8/24/2011
Abstract: For outstanding book in the history of nursing

Doody's Core Title 2010 (Media Coverage)
Date: 8/24/2011

Book Review (Review)
Publication: Journal of the American Medical Association
Date: 8/24/2011

Book Review (Review)
Publication: American Historical Review
Date: 8/24/2011