Florence Nightingale was the first "modern" nurse. Her methods were revolutionary in her time, and they form the basis for the techniques of patient management that have been taught ever since. This volume is a great overview, in her own words, of her ideas on care, cleanliness, and the nursing process in general. Her directives are widely applicable today. Anyone interested in the healthcare process, nursing, or notable women in history would do well to read this little volume. Highly recommended.

Much of what Florence Nightengale is still pertinet today when you get back to the basics of nursing. Excellent commentaries by various authors at the beginning of the book provide insights on how Nightengale's thoughts and theories apply to modern nursing.

I strongly recommend this book. This is a great book about a boy in the Crimean War who helped Florence Nightingale. This book makes you want to read more and more! It is one of the best books I have ever read--I was really inspired by the love and care that Florence Nightingale gave to the wounded and sick soldiers. It was kind of bloody in places, but it makes you pray and feel sorry for the bad conditions they were in. I have read most of the Trailblazer books, and this one is my favorite!

This biography of Florence Nightingale is a detailed and well-written story of one of the world's most remarkable women.

Florence Nightingale was born into an English aristocratic family. She was spoiled and difficult, yet had a sense early in her life that she had been picked by God to do something special. Against her family's wishes she went into nursing, then an activity mostly practiced by prostitutes and drunkards. She trained in a Protestant institution in Germany, a Catholic one in France, and then directed a London home for distressed gentlewomen. In 1851 she went to the Crimea where she became the famous and romanticized "lady of the lamp".

When she returned from the Crimea she continued to work, building on her discoveries of gross inefficiency in the administration of the army hospitals. She toiled at the task of reorganizing delivery of health care in the British army. She directed efforts to improve sanitation in India, and for several decades was the expert on questions of health in India, although she never actually left England again. She was an ongoing consultant on hospital construction. She established a nursing school. In middle age she declared herself to be an individual and rarely left her bedroom. Nevertheless she continued her (almost) Sisyphean labors and wrote many books and reports on matters of public health and nursing.

She was in no sense the sweet, gentle person that people imagined the "lady of the lamp" to be. She was bad tempered and dictatorial. She was deeply attached to morality and authority. Although she did much to make nursing a profession, she was not interested in womens rights and opposed the idea of female suffrage. She never accepted the germ theory (a new idea in the 1870's), although she was always a supporter of ventilation (even when it was not helpful, as in India).

Nevertheless, she had the intellectual flexibility to understand quickly the enormous importance of statistics to public health. She may have been the first person to use pictorial descriptions of statistics. She established, using statistics again, the connection between high volumes of births and maternal mortality.

This is a long book. In his essay on Florence Nightingale Lytton Strachey covers the same material in a much briefer manner. Yet Woodham Smiths extensive descriptions of Nightingale's tenacious work with royal commissions, the repeated struggles with bureaucracies and the vulnerability of her work to changes of government convey to the reader the magnitude of her work. It seems fitting that Nightingale's strength and perseverance be documented in great detail and that the reader spend many hours with Woodham Smith in reviewing Nightingale's Herculean efforts to clean out the Augean stables of bureaucratic neglect. Wandering easily through Strachey's breezy and ironic prose doesn't convince the reader of Nightingale's fortitude.

A major reason for the appeal of this book is the wit of Nightingale herself and her many correspondents. Woodham-Smith quotes liberally from much of her copious correspondence, much of which is pithy and amusing. She was bitter, whiny, full of self-pity, and hyperbolic in a way that makes for wonderful reading. As she grew older she became more gracious, but still retained a sharp pen.

Highly recommended for those with an interest in the history of medicine and nursing, the Crimean war, and the development of England's military and medical institutions.

Florence Nightingale: The Making Of A Radical Theologian by theologist and biographer Val Webb is a fascinating study of the little-known yet fiery and passionate religious beliefs held and shared by the world-famous nursing and hospital reformer, feminist, and social activist. In the Victorian times when Nightingale lived, the inequalities of the stratified British "class" society worried her, and she came to espouse a vigorous liberation theology and followed a deeply spiritual and intimately personal quest for Truth. Amazingly informative, meticulously researched and openly candid, Florence Nightingale: The Making Of A Radical Theologian is a unique and highly recommended biography of an influential and devout historical figure.

I first read Florence Nightengale: War Nurse when I was a child. Ever since then it has been one of my favorite books and now I am an adult. I was very inspired by Florence. I am now enlisted as a nurse in the Air Force. I too would like to help all the wounded soulders. Once again thank you for all the inspiration.

Ages 11 and older will find Heart and Soul an appealing and informative biography of Florence Nightingale, using photos, posters, cartoons and maps throughout to help tell her story. The focus on her life and times provides a wider-ranging biography than is usually presented and gives kids a solid view of her world.

This book is perfect for K-3 students who just can't wade through those lenghty chapter books. It is abundantly illustrated with adorable pictures to keep little eyes busy while you are reading to them. Florence Nightingale was a young lady who graciously served as a nurse to wounded soldiers and instituted many improvements in the field of nursing. Other titles in the series include, Edison, Jefferson, Lincoln, Washington, Franklin, and more.

Florence Nightingale is one of the most important female figures in healthcare of the past two centuries and perhaps of all time. She brought not only enormous compassion and caring to the bedside, but impeccable science as well. It is fitting that her story is told by Barbara Dossey, who has also made significant contributions to nursing science. This biography is a gripping account not only of Nightingale's professional accomplishments, but of her inner life as well. This is a story of how science can be empowered and informed by spirituality, and how the two can dwell harmoniously in an individual life. This book shows how Nightingale helped transform the status of women, and why all modern women are in Nightingale's debt.

As a nurse and amateur Florence Nightingale historian, I was so excited to find this book. The content did not disappoint me. It offers the best coverage of the life of this extraordinary woman I've seen or read. This book is exciting, informative, and beautiful.

Nightingale transformed healthcare in the nineteenth century, and built a foundation for modern nursing. Dossey's clear writing, coupled with her extensive research, presents an enjoyable, comprehensive picture of the significance of Nightingale's life. The historical photographs and illustrations complemented the text and were a delight to view.

I recommend the book to anyone interested in nursing, history or the biography of an amazing woman. Thank you Barbara Dossey for bringing Florence Nightingale to life in this wonderful book!

The life and accomplishments of Florence Nightingale is an extremely difficult subject to examine. This complex and multi-facted women had an amazing intellect driven by her profound spirituality and and need to improve the well-being of mankind. Barbara Dossey is to be commended for her excellent biography which goes well beyond the usual recounting of dates and events. This volume is beautifully illustrated and analyzes many of the persistent issues which have surrounded Nighitngale including her extended illness. There is a well-developed analysis of Nightingale's motivators and motivations. This volume should be of interest to the general reading public as well as nurses.

Lytton Strachey, a member of the Bloomsbury group, altered the way biographies were written with this volume of four well-known Victorians. At the time the book was published, it skewered the hypocrisies and self-assured nature of the Victorians. Even today, when we are so far removed from the Victorian age that it seems quaint and even attractive, this book's attack on the deadening effect of much of that time still rings true. And it is as readable now as it was then; Strachey was one of the wittiest men of his time, and this book is his most successful work. Interestingly, he became less iconoclastic as he grew older, and his later biography of Queen Victoria (not one of the four figures contained in Eminent Victorians) is rather respectful. If you enjoy this book (and almost anyone would), you might want to try to see the movie released several years ago titled "Carrington." It is based on a biography of Strachey by Milchael Holroyd, but is told from the point of view of a woman who fell hopelessly in love with Strachey; unfortunately for her, he was a confirmed homosexual, but she loved him anyway. Emma Thompson plays the title roal and Jonathan Pryce is an excellent Strachey.

Most of us here in the old "colony" have probably never heard of General Gordon. For Brits, he's a legendary eccentric military man of the late 1800's who died a hero in terrible circumstances.(At least that's what I think many Brits think..) After a brilliant career in many parts of the vast Empire, and beyond, Gen Gordon was sent to control some Islamic revolutionary jihadist types (sound familiar) led by a charismatic Mahdi (messiah). By all accounts the general was a man worthy of this assignment, and brought his small force to Khartoum to free the slaves, and rally the locals...The rest is bizarre and insane in the extreme with the good general suffering breakdowns of sorts, including having dinner with some rodent friends...When word gets to London, after political maneuvering and bickering, the people damand an expeditionary force to save Gordon and his men.Too late!! A great tragedy ensues. If there's a better short bio out there than this one, I'd read it ASAP...Florence Nightingale has a great story too, and her experiences show once again the horrors of war (this time the earlier Crimean one), and indifference of the comfortable few sitting at home by the fireplace in willful ignorance. No doubt she was a force to be reckoned with, and her ideas about clean hospitals and nursing helped change the world...This book is recommended to those looking for a different historical perspective on current events, and for nurse everywhere! The other two bios are good, but may be put aside for later.

The most famous anecdote about this book (and the one that made me aware of it) is the scene of Bertrand Russell in his prison cell incarcerated for his Pacifism during WWI laughing hysterically while reading the work. (And being henceforth rebuked by a guard for doing so in what was, after all, a penal institution.)-The other reviewers are pretty much on the mark in that Strachey set a new standard for biography.-But the piece on General Gordon surpasses all. I can see myself on death row laughing over this section.-It is in part a sad reflection on what years in the Sudan can do to an orthodox Englishman's mind. It is indeed uncanny to hear Gordon aver, on his famous expedition to save Khartoum, nearly the exact words of Baudelaire as he gazed across the perhaps too familiar desert landscape:"It is necessary to be drunken always. This is everything. This is the unique question." (my translation)-This is the aged General the sober English sent on this perilous quest. This is the man who daily battled with the question of what God's Will was for him.-What the Gordon section and the others show, of course, is that man (or woman) is not one-dimensional. Far more often, he(she)is multi-dimensional to the point of being paradoxical. The hypocritical Victorian mindset was pushed over the edge by this book.