Synopses & Reviews
andldquo;Wall traces the nursing and management roles of nuns and brothers in church-related US health care institutions. This well-documented volume will be a useful addition for collections supporting academic programs in public health, hospital administration, bioethics, and divinity, and for comprehensive collections in the history of medicine. Recommended.andrdquo; andmdash;Choice
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andldquo;American Catholic Hospitalsand#160;is fair, balanced, insightful, and intriguing. The story Wall tellsandmdash;a story about a significant segment of the USand#160;health care systemandmdash;is meticulously documented. Readers will find her study to be illuminating, even inspirational.andrdquo; andmdash;Journal of the American Medical Association
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andldquo;Inand#160;American Catholic Hospitals, Barbra Mann Hall traces the ways Catholic hospitals have accommodated changes both within the church and in society over the last century. Her book is well researched and a fascinating read.andrdquo; andmdash;Health Progress
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andldquo;Wall presents a compelling and well-documented narrative of the dynamic transformation of Catholic hospitals in twentieth-century America. Drawing on records from Catholic congregations throughout the United States, she reveals an admirable perseverance of religious caregivers, demonstrated by their willingness to adapt to socioeconomic forces often inimical to charitable care.andrdquo; andmdash;American Catholic Studies
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andldquo;American Catholic Hospitalsand#160;is meticulously researched and well written. Although it is certainly appropriate for both undergraduate and graduate students, general readers also will find it to be an excellent overview of the history of the changes that Catholic health-care institutions have undergone in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.andrdquo; andmdash;Catholic Historical Review
andldquo;American Catholic Hospitalsand#160;offers a tremendous amount of new material and refreshing perspectives on current health care system challenges in the United States.andrdquo; andmdash;Sioban Nelson, Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, University of Toronto
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andldquo;Wall provides solid scholarship and engaging insight into the historic and contemporary contributions of American Catholic hospitals and their ability to adapt and serve amid the changing landscapes of church and state, culture wars, and healthcare reforms of the 20th century.andrdquo; andmdash;Carol K. Coburn, author of Spirited Lives: How Nuns Shaped Catholic Culture and American Life, 1836-1920
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Review
andquot;Wall provides solid scholarship and engaging insight into the historic and contemporary contributions of American Catholic hospitals and their ability to adapt and serve amid the changing landscapes of church and state, culture wars, and healthcare reforms of the 20th century.andquot;
Review
andquot;American Catholic Hospitals offers a tremendous amount of new material and refreshing perspectives on current health care system challenges in the United States.andquot;
Review
andquot;Wall traces the nursing and management roles of nuns and brothers in church-related US health care institutions. This well-documented volume will be a useful addition for collections supporting academic programs in public health, hospital administration, bioethics, and divinity, and for comprehensive collections in the history of medicine. Recommended.andquot;
Review
andquot;
American Catholic Hospitals is fair, balanced, insightful, and intriguing. The story Wall tellsandmdash;a story about a significant segment of the USand#160;health care systemandmdash;is meticulously documented. Readers will find her study to be illuminating, even inspirational.andquot;
Review
andquot;In American Catholic Hospitals, Barbra Mann Wall traces the ways Catholic hospitals have accommodated changes both within the church and in society over the last century. Her book is well researched and a fascinating read.andquot;
Review
andquot;Wall presents a compelling and well-documented narrative of the dynamic transformation of Catholic hospitals in twentieth-century America. Drawing on records from Catholic congregations throughout the United States, she reveals an admirable perseverance of religious caregivers, demonstrated by their willingness to adapt to socioeconomic forces often inimical to charitable care.andquot;
Review
andldquo;A particularly striking exploration of the interplay between religion, health, gender, and politics. Walland#39;s work enriches and challenges existing perspectives on the development of health care in sub-Saharan Africa, andand#160;provides an essential historical link between the colonial period and the present day.andquot;
Synopsis
In American Catholic Hospitals, Barbra Mann Wall chronicles changes in Catholic hospitals during the twentieth century. Wall explores the Church's struggle to safeguard its religious values. As hospital leaders reacted to increased political, economic, and societal secularization, they extended their religious principles in the areas of universal health care and adherence to the Ethical and Religious Values in Catholic Hospitals, leading to tensions between the Church, government, and society. Wall undertakes unprecedented analyses of the gendered politics of post-Second Vatican Council Catholic hospitals, as well as the effect of social movements on the practice of medicine.
Synopsis
In American Catholic Hospitals, Barbra Mann Wall chronicles changes in Catholic hospitals during the twentieth century, many of which are emblematic of trends in the American healthcare system.
Wall explores the Church's struggle to safeguard its religious values. As hospital leaders reacted to increased political, economic, and societal secularization, they extended their religious principles in the areas of universal health care and adherence to the Ethical and Religious Values in Catholic Hospitals, leading to tensions between the Church, government, and society. The book also examines the power of women--as administrators, Catholic sisters wielded significant authority--as well as the gender disparity in these institutions which came to be run, for the most part, by men. Wall also situates these critical transformations within the context of the changing Church policy during the 1960s. She undertakes unprecedented analyses of the gendered politics of post-Second Vatican Council Catholic hospitals, as well as the effect of social movements on the practice of medicine.
Synopsis
Inand#160;
Into Africa, Barbra Mann Wall offers a transnational history that explores the intersection of religion, medicine, gender, race, and politics in sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on the years following World War II. The book highlights the importance of transnational partnerships, using the stories of four groups of European and American nuns to enhance our understanding of medical mission work and global change.
Synopsis
The most dramatic growth of Christianity in the late twentieth century has occurred in Africa, where Catholic missions have played major roles. But these missions did more than simply convert Africans. Catholic sisters became heavily involved in the Churchandrsquo;s health services and eventually in relief and social justice efforts. Inand#160;
Into Africa, Barbra Mann Wall offers a transnational history that reveals how Catholic medical and nursing sisters established relationships between local and international groups, sparking an exchange of ideas that crossed national, religious, gender, and political boundaries.
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Both a nurse and a historian, Wall explores this intersection of religion, medicine, gender, race, and politics in sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on the years following World War II, a period when European colonial rule was ending and Africans were building new governments, health care institutions, and education systems. She focuses specifically on hospitals, clinics, and schools of nursing in Ghana and Uganda run by the Medical Mission Sisters of Philadelphia; in Nigeria and Uganda by the Irish Medical Missionaries of Mary; in Tanzania by the Maryknoll Sisters of New York; and in Nigeria by a local Nigerian congregation. Wall shows how, although initially somewhat ethnocentric, the sisters gradually developed a deeper understanding of the diverse populations they served. In the process, their medical and nursing work intersected with critical social, political, and cultural debates that continue in Africa today: debates about the role of women in their local societies, the relationship of women to the nursing and medical professions and to the Catholic Church, the obligations countries have to provide care for their citizens, and the role of women in human rights.
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A groundbreaking contribution to the study of globalization and medicine, Into Africa highlights the importance of transnational partnerships, using the stories of these nuns to enhance the understanding of medical mission work and global change.
About the Author
BARBRA MANN WALL is an associate professor of nursing at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, where she is also the associate director of the Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing. She is the author ofand#160;
American Catholic Hospitals: A Century of Changing Markets and Missions (Rutgers University Press).