Reviews

The Doctors Blackwell was not the self-congratulatory girlboss book I expected — Nimura teases out a lot of very interesting ironies of the sisters’ views and calculations, from their staunch abolitionist views + mentorship of slave owning physicians, to keeping other women at arm’s length lest they reflect poorly on the very best and brightest (themselves), the politics of letters of introduction and see-sawing from England to the east coast to keep training, arguing w Florence Nightingale over women’s aptitude for nursing vs physicians. the sisters, of their own account, were not in it for the platitude of “helping people,” or even for passion of science, but to prove a point, and that’s very funny and admirable to me, lol.

while not their primary concern, one thing that struck me was just how sad and nasty gynecological issues were for women of this period. It makes me want to read more social histories of sexually transmitted diseases + public health regulations around sex work, which get mentioned briefly here.

to all the haters in the GR reviews: sure, it’s not a thriller — but you maybe shouldn’t expect a history book on breaking into the medical establishment in the 1850s to be binge-able. It’s very well researched and I would recommend for all those interested in women, medical history, slow institutional change without the side of girl power prose

rainbowbookworm's review against another edition

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2.0

I don't know if I didn't like the book because the book was just okay or if it is because I was not enjoying Laural Merlington's narration, but whatever the case, I struggled with this one.