Maria SmiliosRezensionen

In the early to mid-20th century, Staten Island’s Seaview Hospital treated tuberculosis patients at a time when there wasn’t an effective cure. The nurses at the facility were mostly African American, and they were referred to by their patients as the “Black Angels.” Smilios relied on interviews with the families of the “Black Angels” and with the few surviving nurses to tell the history of Seaview Hospital from their perspective. Many of the nurses came from the Jim Crow South, looking for better opportunities in New York, only to be faced with the same kind of racism they thought they were leaving behind. These nurses were at the right place at the right time to take part in the clinical trials of the drugs that finally made a difference in the tuberculosis public health crisis.

This is an important story and one worth reading. However, it needed better editing. It’s padded with so much trivial social and cultural history references to popular music, television, current events, etc., that I became increasingly annoyed because it took so long to get to the point of the book. Unless authors are paid by the page, there is no reason for wasting so much of the reader’s time.

This was chosen by Patricia Fara, Emeritus Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge and columnist at History Today, as one of History Today’s Books of the Year 2023.

Find out why at HistoryToday.com.

At a time when tuberculosis was a long death sentence, New York created Sea View, a sanatorium on Staten Island. During the great depression, a nursing shortage forced hospitals and medical practices to open up the field to black nurses. At Sea View, the wards were filled with the Black Angels - the only nurses who would work in the dangerous sanatorium. This book follows several black nurses and their patients as potential cures were tested and discarded.

I could not put this book down. It was engaging and well written. The nurses and patients described throughout were fully developed and extremely relatable. Each of the nurses was an unsung hero who deserves recognition and accolades. Overall, 5 out of 5 stars.

contagion, bias, historical-figures, historical-places-events, historical-research, historical-setting, history-and-culture, medical-history, medical-perspective, medical-treatment, tuberculosis*****

This is an amazing exploration of the 20th century history of tuberculosis and the Black women who worked under horrible conditions to make it possible for new developments in treatment.
My MIL spent a year in a TB sanitorium in the 1920s but lived long and prospered. I have been an RN since 1968 and have seen the nonrespiratory TB, in the 1990s/2000s (while I was working in jails) TB was a scourge in the Soviet union. But I was clueless about the history encapsulated in this very necessary book.
I requested and received an EARC from PENGUIN GROUP Putnam, G.P. Putnam's Sons via NetGalley. Thank you!