This is an example of my favorite type of biography. The author did not white-wash Florence Nightingale's history. It offers a balance between her personal life, her attempts to create nursing as an honorable profession, her difficulties with people in power, and how she moved British medicine to better, and more compassionate care. That is a remarkable amount of change in one person's life.
I particularly liked that the author reminded readers that Nightingale had to create all this change while women did not have the vote or even the right to force medical leaders (who were almost all men) to make changes. She did this by learning statistics and compiling data. When she wrote about the problems and showed them with actual numbers, she was believed. Her facts were irrefutable.
It seems that Florence spent almost her whole life changing people's minds. Her most difficult adversaries (to her plans and intentions) were her parents and older sister. It seems as if changing the world's mind was much easier to change than her parents'.
This is a very balanced story of Florence's life; as she got older and less well, she became grouchier and harder to deal with. This book pulls no punches about her irascible behavior. Florence Nightingale was a powerful force for good, but she was also very human. Thanks for a great overview of an important life.
I particularly liked that the author reminded readers that Nightingale had to create all this change while women did not have the vote or even the right to force medical leaders (who were almost all men) to make changes. She did this by learning statistics and compiling data. When she wrote about the problems and showed them with actual numbers, she was believed. Her facts were irrefutable.
It seems that Florence spent almost her whole life changing people's minds. Her most difficult adversaries (to her plans and intentions) were her parents and older sister. It seems as if changing the world's mind was much easier to change than her parents'.
This is a very balanced story of Florence's life; as she got older and less well, she became grouchier and harder to deal with. This book pulls no punches about her irascible behavior. Florence Nightingale was a powerful force for good, but she was also very human. Thanks for a great overview of an important life.
