Heroines of Mercy Street: The Real Nurses of the Civil War
Pamela D. Toler, 2016
Little, Brown & Company
304 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780316392068
Summary
The true stories of the real nurses on the PBS show Mercy Street
The nurses of the Civil War ushered in a new era for medicine in the midst of tremendous hardship. While the country was at war, these women learned to advocate and care for patients in hostile settings, saved countless lives, and changed the profession forever
But they regularly fell ill with no one to nurse them in return, seethed in anger at the indifference and inefficiency that left wounded men on the battlefield without care, and all too often mourned for those they could not rescue.
Heroines of Mercy Street tells the true stories of the nurses at Mansion House, the Alexandria, Virginia, hotel turned wartime hospital and setting for the PBS show Mercy Street. Women like Dorothea Dix, Mary Phinney, Anne Reading, and more rushed to be of service to their country during the war, meeting challenges that would discourage less determined souls every step of the way. They saw casualties on a scale Americans had never seen before; diseases like typhoid and dysentery were rampant; and working conditions-both physically and emotionally—were abysmal.
Drawing on the diaries, letters, and books written by these nursing pioneers, Pamela D. Toler, PhD, has written a fascinating portrait of true heroines, shining a light on their personal contributions during one of our country's most turbulent periods. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1958
• Where—state of Missouri, USA (?)
• Education—B.A., Carlton College; Ph,D, University of Chicago
• Currently—Chicago, Illinois, USA
Pamela D. Toler is an American history writer, the author of Heroines of Mercy Street: The Real Nurses of the Civil War (2016). It is the companion book to PBS's Mercey Street, a dramatic series about the nurses during the Civil War. She is also the author of Mankind: The Story of all of Us (2012) and The Everything Guide to Socialism (2011).
Toler has loved history from the time she was a young girl, quickly swapping our histories and biographies from her school library as soon as a new one would come in. By the time she reached high school, according to Toler, she was the class nerd who "hung out at the local historical society."
From high school, she went on to Carlton College in Minnesota to earn her B.A., and then to the University of Chicago where she attained both her M.A. and Ph.D. in history. In a History News Network interview, Robin Lindley referred to Toler as a "wide-ranging historian and writer." She has tackled subjects ranging from a book on Matt Damon or on socialism to articles on mosquito-borne diseases (Time magazine) and the first European translation of "Arabian Nights."
As she told writing coach Marla Beck, she wants to show the reverse side of history:
I'm committed to telling the historical stories that let my readers see the world from a different perspective. Not just "wow, I didn’t know that," but "wow, I never thought about that."
Before turning to writing full-time, Toler spent 25 years in property management, eventually becoming vice president and part-owner of a firm. It wasn't until she realized how much her corporate work took time away from her writing that she finally decided to devote herself full-time to history and writing.
Her project with PBS began with an email: the network was searching for someone to write the companion book for Mercy Street. The series, about Civil War nurses in Union-held Alexandria, Virginia, was still in development, but Toler said the time frame was tight. She turned to secondary sources, many by the historians who had advised the producers/writers early on. She also used primary sources — letters and diaries to help her flesh out the story. (Adapted from various online sources.)
Read the complete Historian News Network interview with the author.
Book Reviews
Dr. Toler delves into the medical consequences of the Civil War, the bloodiest conflict in U.S. history that left 750,000 troops dead — more than twice the number of American troops killed in World War II and two percent of the population in the 1860s. If a similar number of Americans died in a war today, the toll would reach about 7.5 million. Hundreds of thousands more troops were wounded or seriously ill. As Dr. Toler writes, women stepped into the fray and at least twenty thousand volunteered to serve in capacities related to medicine from nurses to laundresses to hospital staff, including about six thousand Union Army nurses, many under the command of renowned reformer Dorothea Dix, the Superintendent of Army Nurses.
Robin Lindley - History News Network
Accessible and well researched, Toler's book coincides with the recent PBS series Mercy Street and successfully illustrates the beginnings of nursing as a designated field of medical practice. —Rebecca Hill, Zionsville, IN
Library Journal
Discussion Questions
The following questions were graciously offered to LitLovers by Angela Scott, Program Coordinator, Ligonier Library. Thanks, Angela.
1. Did the book create a new set of expectations for you in what a Civil War nurse truly was? Many might previously have the image of an older woman that comes from middle to upper class families and wish to work towards philanthropy, but in reality, they came from a diverse background. How did your expectations of these women change as you read through the book?
2. What did you think of Dorothea Dix and her attempt to create an army of nurses? Was she successful? Did you feel her own preconceived notions limited the nursing field? What did you think of the men that attempted to control her and limit her power?
3. Did you have a concept of how overwhelming the wounded would have been to doctors and nurses who had little training and no real organization to fall back on, especially at the start of the war?
4. Most men were extremely hostile to the nurses when they first working with military. How did this change by the end of the war and how did the women earn their respect?
5. The women felt their duty towards the soldiers was more than just tending wounds. How did they see their roles in relation to their patients?
6. Do you feel that the nurses finally got the recognition that they deserved? By the end of the war? Years later?
7. How did the war change the way women seen themselves? Like during many wars, women were forced to step into the roles of what had primarily been male. Did this give them more power and how did that change them later after the war ended?
8. Was there a story that stuck out for you as a reader or you identified with?
(Questions courtesy of Angela Scott, Ligoniere Library. Please feel free to use online or off, with attribution to both Angela and LitLovers. Thanks..)