The Doctors Blackwell
How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine
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Narrated by:
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Laural Merlington
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By:
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Janice P. Nimura
About this listen
Elizabeth Blackwell believed from an early age that she was destined for a mission beyond the scope of "ordinary" womanhood. Though the world at first recoiled at the notion of a woman studying medicine, her intelligence and intensity ultimately won her the acceptance of the male medical establishment. In 1849, she became the first woman in America to receive an MD. She was soon joined in her iconic achievement by her younger sister, Emily, who was actually the more brilliant physician.
Exploring the sisters' allies, enemies, and enduring partnership, Janice P. Nimura presents a story of trial and triumph. Together, the Blackwells founded the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children, the first hospital staffed entirely by women. Both sisters were tenacious and visionary, but their convictions did not always align with the emergence of women's rights - or with each other. From Bristol, Paris, and Edinburgh to the rising cities of antebellum America, this richly researched new biography celebrates two complicated pioneers who exploded the limits of possibility for women in medicine. As Elizabeth herself predicted, "a hundred years hence, women will not be what they are now."
©2021 Janice P. Nimura (P)2021 HighBridge, a division of Recorded BooksListeners also enjoyed...
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Hawthorne approached the Romantic notion of the ability of science to destroy art (or beauty) in the form of fictive "horror stories" of biological research out of control. This story is the best of that group. A devoted scientist marries a beautiful woman with a single physical flaw: a birthmark on her face. Aylmer becomes obsessed with the imperfection and his attempts to remove it via his scientific skills, thus rendering his bride perfect.
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Bland uninspired
- By Holcomb on 10-02-12
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Isak Dinesen
- The Life of a Storyteller
- By: Judith Thurman
- Narrated by: Davina Porter
- Length: 21 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Isak Dinesen earned international fame for Seven Gothic Tales and Out of Africa, and other stories that skillfully combine elements of fable, social conflict, and psychological drama. She was twice nominated for the Nobel Prize. Yet the story of her life - her travels, affairs, and friendships - remains the greatest story of all.
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over-written
- By Jacqui Good on 10-19-18
By: Judith Thurman
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My Experiments with Truth
- By: Mohandas K. Gandhi
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 2 hrs and 44 mins
- Abridged
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Mohandas Gandhi inspired the spiritual and political souls of millions of people. His concept of nonviolent resistance propelled numerous struggles throughout the world, including the civil rights movement in America. Written after his release from prison, first published in English in 1927, My Experiments with Truth is Gandhi's autobiography, documenting his spiritual journey amidst the political strife of his times.
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Excellent book
- By Al on 03-15-10
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An Autobiography
- The Story of My Experiments with Truth
- By: Mohandas - Mahatma K. Gandhi
- Narrated by: Bill Wallace
- Length: 18 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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A holy man to Hindus, a hero to Muslims, and a criminal to the British, Mohandas K. Gandhi was an inspiring figure of the 20th century, a man whose quest to live in accord with God’s highest truth led him to initiate massive campaigns against racism, violence, and colonialism.
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Narration disappointment
- By Antonia on 06-23-11
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Charity and Sylvia
- By: Rachel Hope Cleves
- Narrated by: Kristin Kalbli
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Conventional wisdom holds that same-sex marriage is a purely modern innovation, a concept born of an overtly modern lifestyle that was unheard of in 19th-century America. But as Rachel Hope Cleves demonstrates in this eye-opening book, same-sex marriage is hardly new. Born in 1777, Charity Bryant was raised in Massachusetts. A brilliant and strong-willed woman with a clear attraction for her own sex, Charity found herself banished from her family home at age 20.
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Fascinating story!
- By Chloe Northrop on 06-13-17
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Gentleman Jack (Movie Tie-In)
- The Real Anne Lister
- By: Anne Choma, Sally Wainwright
- Narrated by: Eva Pope, Erin Shanager
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Anne Lister was extraordinary. Fearless, charismatic, and determined to explore her lesbian sexuality, she forged her own path in a society that had no language to define her. She was a landowner, an industrialist, and a prolific diarist whose output has secured her legacy as one of the most fascinating figures of the 19th century. Gentleman Jack: The Real Anne Lister follows Anne from her crumbling ancestral home in Yorkshire to the glittering courts of Denmark as she resolves to put past heartbreak behind her and find herself a wife.
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A true pioneer on many levels
- By Dana on 05-18-19
By: Anne Choma, and others
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Eleanor Roosevelt
- Volume I, 1884-1933
- By: Blanche Wiesen Cook
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 22 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Eleanor Roosevelt was born into the privileges and prejudices of American aristocracy and into a family ravaged by alcoholism. She overcame debilitating roots: in her public life, fighting against racism and injustice and advancing the rights of women; and in her private life, forming lasting intimate friendships with some of the great men and women of her time.
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One of the Great Americans I knew too little about
- By Ray M on 07-19-20
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Eleanor
- By: David Michaelis
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 19 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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In the first single-volume cradle-to-grave portrait in six decades, acclaimed biographer David Michaelis delivers a stunning account of Eleanor Roosevelt’s remarkable life of transformation. An orphaned niece of President Theodore Roosevelt, she converted her Gilded Age childhood of denial and secrecy into an irreconcilable marriage with her ambitious fifth cousin Franklin. Franklin Roosevelt transformed Eleanor from a settlement house volunteer on New York’s Lower East Side into a matching partner in New York’s most important power couple in a generation.
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Stands apart from other biographies of ER
- By Debra Malone on 11-20-20
By: David Michaelis
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Square Haunting
- Five Writers in London Between the Wars
- By: Francesca Wade
- Narrated by: Corrie James
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Mecklenburgh Square has always been a radical address. Nestled in the heart of Bloomsbury, these townhouses have borne witness to the lives of some of the century's most revolutionary cultural figures - many of whom were extraordinary women. United by their desire to experiment with new ways of living - and, therefore, of being - these authors and thinkers were trailblazers in their commitment to creative independence.
By: Francesca Wade
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Louisa
- The Extraordinary Life of Mrs. Adams
- By: Louisa Thomas
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Born in London to an American father and a British mother on the eve of the Revolutionary War, Louisa Catherine Johnson was raised in circumstances very different from the New England upbringing of future president John Quincy Adams, whose life had been dedicated to public service from the earliest age. And yet John Quincy fell in love with her almost despite himself. Their often tempestuous but deeply close marriage lasted half a century.
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Insightful
- By Jean on 05-18-16
By: Louisa Thomas
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Eleanor in the Village
- By: Jan Jarboe Russell
- Narrated by: Samantha Desz
- Length: 5 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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A captivating blend of personal history detailing Eleanor’s struggle with issues of marriage, motherhood, financial independence, and femininity, and a vibrant portrait of one of the most famous neighborhoods in the world, this unique work examines the ways that the sensibility, mood, and various inhabitants of the neighborhood influenced the First Lady’s perception of herself and shaped her political views over four decades, up to her death in 1962.
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Grabs your attention
- By Amanda Hodges on 05-13-21
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YES! I GET IT! I've read history before - JUST STOP!!!!! British settlers were arrogant jerks!! Aaaaaaaargh
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What listeners say about The Doctors Blackwell
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Nancy Sipple
- 03-20-24
Good History of Early Women Doctors
My great grandmother was among the first women to graduate from the University of Michigan medical school in the early 1880’s. I remember her and some of her stories but oh how I wish I had been older or she had lived longer. I wanted to read this book to learn more, and I did. But maybe this book is better read than listened to. I found it a little dry, more like a report. The two sisters were fascinating, complicated women. The book would have been better if there had been more about them rather than just their experience and what happened to them.
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- Rebecca R
- 07-11-22
Interesting piece of history
The story is well-written and pieced together from different letters and journal entries. I really enjoyed learning about these pioneering women. Where would we be without them? Shockingly, some of the issues the Blackwell sisters dealt with are still being grappled with even today.
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- Chrisitne C. Corser
- 01-12-23
Enjoyed
I thoroughly enjoyed learning about the Blackwell Sisters. Read well with soothing voice. Thank you!
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- Harriet
- 02-10-21
A Case for Women in Medicine: The Blackwell Sister
This is a well-written and thoroughly researched book, which considers the background of the Blackwell family, and their move to the new world from England in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. Elizabeth was the third of nine children, and five years Emily's senior.
The Blackwell children did not attend school and were tutored at home as was the habit of wealthy families at that time. Of the girls, Elizabeth and Emily were the most intellectually gifted and ambitious.
Elizabeth apparently chose medicine as a field because it seemed the most challenging area of study, and she went at it with a dogged determination in the face of rejection from the many institutions to which she applied. Finally, she was accepted at a small college in Geneva New York. The same school, although Elizabeth was graduated with honors, refused to accept Emily a few years later.
Elizabeth was impatient to have her sister Emily join her in this medical endeavor, both because she was lonely, and because she believed Emily was her intellectual equal.
While today we can celebrate their intelligence and determination, this biography makes it clear that the sisters did not become physicians to alleviate the suffering of women in particular or humanity in general, but to prove something about themselves to the world at large. In fact, Elizabeth in particular did not even like women and felt that women as a group were not intelligent enough to have the vote. Elizabeth was quite opinionated, and believed that professional or academic women should, in fact, be celibate.
Both sisters shunned the overtures of liberal suffragettes, and did not attend any of their ground-breaking meetings.
This book was not helped by it's narrator, who often allowed sarcasm to seep through the writer's words. Also, Elizabeth spent time in Paris, and the narrator's French was painful to hear. By the end of this book, I regretted not having read it for myself.
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17 people found this helpful
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- Grigoria
- 04-08-23
bad narrator
Such an interesting story but read so badly that I kept checking out and had to feel for my pulse.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Wendy
- 01-21-23
Valuable History
I loved how this story linked a lot of my previous learning together. I constantly felt this woman sounded really quirky and odd and and if I had known her in real life I would not have enjoyed her. It is in keeping with many brilliant minds who change the world. If you are reading this for the medical history it is worth the time. If you are reading it for an inspirational story you might be disappointed.
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- Anonymous User
- 03-30-21
Very interesting and unexpected story, suffers from dry narration
This book details the lives of Emily and Elizabeth Blackwell, pioneering women of medicine, warts and all. A wonderful and thought provoking bit of history, filled with a treasure trove of primary resources which bring the unusual characters to life.
Unfortunately, the performance of the narrator takes away somewhat from the enjoyment of the book. The dry, sometimes sarcastic tone with which the story is read gives it a flavor of something I can’t quite put my finger on, but wasn’t to the benefit of the listening experience. The physical book also contains interesting images, so I therefore suggest reading this book in print rather than listening to it.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Stephanie Loomis
- 10-14-21
interesting
An interesting history and biography of the first women to be awarded degrees as medical doctors. The narrator was not particularly engaging and I had to speed the narration to get through. Still, worth reading/listening.
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- Amazon Customer
- 12-04-23
First woman doctor’s biography
Details of the times, her feelings and 1800 medicine, including medical education for women. It also addresses the state of hygiene and how it was perceived.
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- Jess
- 02-15-21
Excellent!
Who knew? This is a very interesting account of sisters determined to be doctors and doing all kinds of firsts to get there. This should be required reading in high school!
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2 people found this helpful