Clara Barton, Professional Angel

Elizabeth Brown Pryor

476 pages | 6 x 9 | 21 illus.
Paper 1988 | ISBN 978-0-8122-1273-0 | $27.50s | £18.00 | Add to shopping cart
A volume in the Studies in Health, Illness, and Caregiving series

"Pryor's exhaustive research serves her subject well."—Christian Science Monitor

"Barton established and headed the American Red Cross, was superintendent of a women's reformatory, played a key role in providing medical aid and relief to Civil War battlefronts, and helped establish the New Jersey public school system. Yet her character was far from saintly. Her desire for approval and recognition was boundless, and her overachieving zeal alienated contemporaries. For this outstanding biography, Pryor uses Barton's recently discovered diaries, plus letters and other primary sources, to portray a complex, troubled heroine without delving into historical psychoanalysis. A tribute to a remarkable woman. Highly recommended."—Library Journal

"Irresistible. . . . Clara Barton, compassionate angel, becomes Clara Barton, neurotic, adulterer, careerist, embittered octogenarian—an authoritarian boss unable to brook criticism or delegate authority, who demanded loyalty from all and prompted one aide to dub her 'the Queen.'"—Philadelphia Inquirer

Meticulously researched and well written. . . . Pryor has done an excellent job in bringing the real Clara Barton to life."—Civil War History

"Probing, thoughtful, fascinating, and beautifully written."—American Studies

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