Alice Hamilton: a life in letters

"She was first considered "subversive" during World War I, yet she lived to protest our involvement in Vietnam. She was America's foremost industrial toxicologist, a pioneer in medicine and in social reform, long-time resident of Hull House, pacifist and civil libertarian. She wa...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Sicherman, Barbara
Institution:ETUI-European Trade Union Institute
Format: TEXT
Language:English
Published: Urbana 2003
University of Illinois Press
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.labourline.org/KENTIKA-19189683124919078659-alice-Hamilton-a-life-in-lette.htm
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author Sicherman, Barbara
author_facet Sicherman, Barbara
collection Library items
description "She was first considered "subversive" during World War I, yet she lived to protest our involvement in Vietnam. She was America's foremost industrial toxicologist, a pioneer in medicine and in social reform, long-time resident of Hull House, pacifist and civil libertarian. She was Edith Hamilton's sister, and the first woman on the faculty of Harvard, though she retired--an assistant professor in the school of public health--ten years before women medical students were admitted. This legendary figure now comes to life in an integrated work of biography and letters. A keen observer and an extraordinarily complex woman, Alice Hamilton left a rich correspondence, spanning the period from 1888 to 1965, that forms a journal of her times as well as of her life. The letters document the range of her involvement, from the battle against lead poisoning to debates with Felix Frankfurter over civil liberties. But as Alice Hamilton describes a woman's medical education in the late nineteenth century, her unlikely adventures in city slums, mine shafts, and factories, her work with Jane Addams and the women's peace movement, we also witness the stages of one woman's evolution from self-deprecating girl to leading social advocate. The charming details of her girlhood help us to understand her conflicted need to escape Victorian constraints without violating her own notion of femininity, a dilemma resolved only by a career combining science with service. "
format TEXT
geographic USA
id 19189683124919078659_f8a20df57fd74596a6c4f181f02fb5fd
institution ETUI-European Trade Union Institute
is_hierarchy_id 19189683124919078659_f8a20df57fd74596a6c4f181f02fb5fd
is_hierarchy_title Alice Hamilton: a life in letters
language English
physical 460 p.
Paper
publishDate 2003
publisher Urbana
University of Illinois Press
spellingShingle Sicherman, Barbara
biography
occupational medicine
social reform
toxicology
women
Alice Hamilton: a life in letters
title Alice Hamilton: a life in letters
topic biography
occupational medicine
social reform
toxicology
women
url https://www.labourline.org/KENTIKA-19189683124919078659-alice-Hamilton-a-life-in-lette.htm