Routledge Handbook on the Global History of Nursing

The Routledge Handbook of Nursing History brings together leading scholars and scholarship to capture the state of the art and science of nursing history. A generation of scholars are turning to the history of nursing with new paradigms and methodological tools, adding oral history evidence and textual and artifact analysis to traditional documentary sources. Some have moved beyond a traditional nation-state analysis to use nurses to historically track the global flow of ideas and practices. Other have turned to new actors in the history of nursing and have used such men and women to chart different forms of activism. Still others use nurses and nursing as a concept of analysis and, in doing so, tell a more nuanced and gendered history of hospitals and health care. And some are focusing on the intersectionality of race, class, gender and place on professional identity formation. Inviting readers to consider new understandings of the historical work and worth of nursing in a larger global context, this groundbreaking volume illuminates how research in the history of nursing moves us away from reductionistic foci on diseases and treatments and towards more inclusive ideas about the experiences of illnesses on individuals, families, communities, voluntary organizations, and states at the bedside and across the globe. An extended introduction by the editors provides an overview and analyzes the key themes involved in the transmission of ideas about the care of the sick. Organized into four parts covering the themes of people, practice, politics and places, each part is introduced by an analytic essay bringing all the content and themes of the various chapters together. This cutting edge volume brings together the best of nursing history scholarship. It is a vital reference for all researchers in the field, and is also relevant to those studying on nursing history and health policy courses.