Lillian Wald: America's Great Social and Healthcare Reformer

by Paul M. Kaplan

Overview

The greatest social reformer of her time!

Pres. Franklin Roosevelt called Lillian Wald “one of the least known yet most important people” of her time. Wald, a relentless advocate for the welfare of children, was responsible for many of the social and health-related programs we take for granted today. She campaigned for school lunches and nurses in public schools, founded the Henry Street Settlement, and was an early promoter of women’s suffrage. Wald was adept at navigating both the poorest, most densely populated neighborhoods, as well as the upper circles of society, where she sought donors to support her efforts.

Paul Kaplan’s extensive research into the history of New York brought him to this fascinating subject. Through his revealing profile of Lillian Wald, Kaplan deftly illustrates how far we’ve come as a society, how much work it took to get here, and how much more work there is still to be done.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781455623501
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	12/02/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	112
File size:	13 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	1 - 12 Years

About the Author

Paul M. Kaplan has visited much of the United States and traveled to countries across six continents. A prolific writer, he delves into the social and cultural history of a location and delights in sharing the untold stories behind sites both famous and unknown. Director of digital strategy for Broadridge Financial Solutions, Kaplan graduated from Yale University with a BA in ethics, politics, and economics. He is involved with numerous organizations, including the Yale Writers’ Conference. 

 

Editorial Reviews

04/01/2018
Gr 7 Up—Born in 1867, Lillian Wald grew up privileged in a Jewish community and witnessed the conditions of the poor when she became a nurse and worked at a youth asylum in New York City. There, she moved to the Lower East Side to teach its residents about health and hygiene. She helped form "settlements" so the nurses could live where they worked. She taught nurses to treat the whole person and not just the illness and started several social reform programs, influenced many more, and helped create nursing as a profession. This book is well researched, dense, and informative, and the author often writes in short sentences yet uses sophisticated vocabulary such as lackadaisical and ameliorating. The book offers an overview of early 20th-century society and has impressive back matter, too. VERDICT A secondary purchase for collections looking to beef up biography sections and to go beyond social reformers such as Jane Addams and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.—Kristin Joy Anderson, Bloomingdale Public Library, IL

School Library Journal