Woman of Valor

April 4, 1994
Prolific biographer Oates ( Abraham Lincoln ) uses both primary and secondary sources in addressing the Civil War career of Clara Barton (1821-1912). He interprets her work as an act of self-discovery and part of a larger trend in which American women were finding a new sense of their collective worth. An ``angel of the battlefield'' who succored the wounded while under fire, Barton also raised funds and supplies through a network of women's support groups, while challenging the conventional belief that nursing was inappropriate for respectable women. Overcoming her initial inhibitions and demonstrating that women were more broadly capable than had been accepted, Barton, who founded the American Red Cross, opened the door for women in professions and politics during the second half of the 19th century. Oates here makes a useful contribution to women's history and Civil War studies.