The American Red Cross


Book Description

The iconic relief organization’s activities over a half century of history, through wars, epidemics, and other disasters: “Well-researched . . . fascinating.” —Julia F. Irwin, Bulletin of the History of Medicine In dark skirts and bloodied boots, Clara Barton fearlessly ventured onto Civil War battlefields to tend to wounded soldiers. She later worked with civilians in Europe during the Franco-Prussian War, lobbied legislators to ratify the Geneva conventions, and founded and ran the American Red Cross. The American Red Cross from Clara Barton to the New Deal tells the story of the charitable organization from its start in 1881, through its humanitarian aid during wars, natural disasters, and the Depression, to its relief efforts of the 1930s. Marian Moser Jones illustrates the tension between the organization’s founding principles of humanity and neutrality and the political, economic, and moral pressures that sometimes caused it to favor one group at the expense of another. This book tells the stories of: • U.S. natural disasters such as the Jacksonville yellow fever epidemic of 1888, the Sea Islands hurricane of 1893, and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake • crises abroad, including the 1892 Russian famine and the Armenian massacres of 1895–96 • efforts to help civilians affected by the civil war in Cuba • power struggles within the American Red Cross leadership and subsequent alliances with the American government • the organization’s expansion during World War I • race riots and massacres in East St. Louis, Chicago, and Tulsa between 1917 and 1921 • help for African American and white Southerners after the Mississippi flood of 1927 • relief projects during the Dust Bowl and after the New Deal An epilogue relates the history of the American Red Cross since the beginning of World War II and illuminates the organization’s current practices and international reputation.




The Story of My Childhood


Book Description

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.







What This Cruel War Was Over


Book Description

Using letters, diaries, and regimental newspapers to take us inside the minds of Civil War soldiers—black and white, Northern and Southern—as they fought and marched across a divided country, this unprecedented account is “an essential contribution to our understanding of slavery and the Civil War" (The Philadelphia Inquirer). In this unprecedented account, Chandra Manning With stunning poise and narrative verve, Manning explores how the Union and Confederate soldiers came to identify slavery as the central issue of the war and what that meant for a tumultuous nation. This is a brilliant and eye-opening debut and an invaluable addition to our understanding of the Civil War as it has never been rendered before.




Clara Barton, Professional Angel


Book Description

Widely known today as the "Angel of the Battlefield," Clara Barton's personal life has always been shrouded in mystery. In Clara Barton, Professional Angel, Elizabeth Brown Pryor presents a biography of Barton that strips away the heroic exterior and reveals a complex and often trying woman. Based on the papers Clara Barton carefully saved over her lifetime, this biography is the first one to draw on these recorded thoughts. Besides her own voluminous correspondence, it reflects the letters and reminiscences of lovers, a grandniece who probed her aunt's venerable facade, and doctors who treated her nervous disorders. She emerges as a vividly human figure. Continually struggling to cope with her insecure family background and a society that offered much less than she had to give, she chose achievement as the vehicle for gaining the love and recognition that frequently eluded her during her long life. Not always altruistic, her accomplishments were nonetheless extraordinary. On the battlefields of the Civil War, in securing American participation in the International Red Cross, in promoting peacetime disaster relief, and in fighting for women's rights, Clara Barton made an unparalleled contribution to American social progress. Yet the true measure of her life must be made from this perspective: she dared to offend a society whose acceptance she treasured, and she put all of her energy into patching up the lives of those around her when her own was rent and frayed.










Famous Americans


Book Description

People who are considered “famous” can be found in many different fields. This book describes 472 museums, historic sites, and memorials about 409 people in 26 categories: Actors Explorers Playwrights Architects First Ladies Poets Artists/Sculptors Frontiersmen Presidents Athletes Journalists/Publishers Public Officials/ Author/Writers Medical Innovators Political Figures Aviators/Astronauts Military Figures Religious Leaders Business/Industrial/Financial Musicians/Singers/ Scientists/Engineers/ Figures Composers Inventors Educators Outlaws Social Activists Entertainers Patriotic Figures Socialites They include such people as Clark Gable, Judy Garland, Georgia O’Keeffe, Norman Rockwell, Ernest Hemingway, Edgar Allan Poe, Sinclair Lewis, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Will Rogers, Daniel Boone, Buffalo Bill Cody, William Randolph Hearst, Douglas MacArthur, Robert E. Lee, Louis Armstrong, Elvis Presley, Betsy Ross, Carl Sandburg, Jesse James, Benjamin Franklin, Daniel Webster, Billy Graham, Martin Luther King, Jr., Jane Addams, Frederick Douglass, Doris Duke, Helen Keller, Wilbur and Orville Wright, and all the Presidents, including George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Among the sites of the museums and other tributes are such places as the Katharine Hepburn Museum, Thomas Hart Benton Home and Studio, Babe Ruth Museum, Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House, Mark Twain House and Museum, Charles A. Lindberg Historic Site, Lincoln Memorial, Morgan Library and Museum, Kit Carson Home and Museum, Clara Barton National Historic Site, Stonewall Jackson’s Home, Marian Anderson Residence/Museum and Birthplace, Stephen Foster Memorial Museum, Tennessee Williams Birthplace/Home, Mount Vernon: George Washington’s Estate and Gardens, Roger Williams National Memorial, Rachel Carson Homestead, Rosa Parks Library and Museum, and Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum. In addition to the chapters and directory, the book includes a geographical guide to the sites, selected bibliography, index, and 29 photographs.




Clara Barton


Book Description

Called the angel of the battlefield, Clara Barton's compassion for others led her to caring for wounded soldiers during the Civil War. Barton's role as founder of the American Red Cross and her leadership as its first president, earned her a place in history.