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LILLIAN WALD

AMERICA’S GREAT SOCIAL AND HEALTHCARE REFORMER

A fascinating introduction to the “angel of Henry Street” for a new generation.

Lillian Wald, revered in her lifetime, is little known today. But she was responsible for many of the social and health related programs we take for granted.

She came from a comfortable German-Jewish middle-class family in Rochester, New York. Lillian always wanted to do something more than marry a suitable man and raise a family. She found her calling when she met a nurse who attended her ill sister. She lied about her age to get into New York Hospital’s School of Nursing, where she rebelled against meaningless regulations and menial training. Her first visit to a tenement apartment on the Lower East Side opened her eyes to what would become her life’s work: to find practical solutions to the health needs of the immigrant tenement dwellers. From that point she lived among the people and nursed them in their own homes. From this beginning she founded the Visiting Nurse Service, the Henry Street Settlement, and the first city playground; she also fought to have nurses in schools and for school lunches, established camps in the country, and so much more, connecting with wealthy, like-minded people for funding. Kaplan has meticulously researched Wald’s life and achievements and sets them carefully in context, with many references to contemporary events and people. The book employs sidebars where necessary and is illustrated with archival photographs; all is presented in a conversational, greatly admiring tone.

A fascinating introduction to the “angel of Henry Street” for a new generation. (preface, acknowledgements, notes, references, suggested reading, index) (Biography. 12-adult)

Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-4556-2349-5

Page Count: 112

Publisher: Pelican

Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018

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THE ANCIENT CITY

LIFE IN CLASSICAL ATHENS AND ROME

Strewn with minutely detailed cityscapes, cutaway views, and interiors, this hefty urban study recaptures the architectural glories of two great cities in their heydays, with as much specific information as assignment-driven readers or browsers could want. In a substantial text providing plenty of historical background, aided by a blizzard of sharp, full-color photos of artifacts and classical art, Connolly (Pompeii, 1990) and Dodge examine both cities’ major and minor buildings, from Bronze Age remnants through the aftermath of the Persian War (for Athens) and the great fire of a.d. 64. (for Rome), also describing government, legal systems, religious ceremonies, theater and other public amusements, fashion, daily life for people of all classes, food, water, and waste disposal. More debatable or speculative reconstructions are noted as such. Equally suited to casual readers or serious study, this takes a giant step past the Eyewitness-filled cheap seats and even beyond David Macaulay territory. (maps, diagrams, glossary, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 12-16)

Pub Date: May 1, 1998

ISBN: 0-19-521409-9

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Oxford Univ.

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1998

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MISSISSIPPI RIVER

A JOURNEY DOWN THE FATHER OF WATERS

Intrepid explorer Lourie tackles the “Father of Waters,” the Mighty Mississippi, traveling by canoe, bicycle, foot, and car, 2,340 miles from the headwaters of the great river at the Canadian border to the river’s end in the Gulf of Mexico. As with his other “river titles” (Rio Grande, 1999, etc.), he intertwines history, quotes, and period photographs, interviews with people living on and around the river, personal observations, and contemporary photographs of his journey. He touches on the Native Americans—who still harvest wild rice on the Mississippi, and named the river—loggers, steamboats, Civil War battles, and sunken treasure. He stops to talk with a contemporary barge pilot, who tows jumbo-sized tank barges, or 30 barges carrying 45,000 tons of goods up and down and comments: “You think ‘river river river’ night and day for weeks on end.” Lourie describes the working waterway of locks and barges, oil refineries and diesel engines, and the more tranquil areas with heron and alligators, and cypress swamps. A personal travelogue, historical geography, and welcome introduction to the majestic river, past and present. (Nonfiction. 10-14)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2000

ISBN: 1-56397-756-7

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Boyds Mills

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2000

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