Colonial Caring ─ A history of colonial and post-colonial nursing

The history of nursing presents a unique perspective from which to interrogate colonialism and post-colonialism, as nurses were often a key conduit between coloniser and colonised. Many colonising powers used nurses as a means of insinuating their own cultures into the lives of indigenous people, yet despite the valuable insights such an approach reveals, colonial history has never before been approached from this particular direction.

Colonial caring brings together a collection of essays from an international group of historians who examine the relationship between colonialism, nursing and nurses. Gender, class and race permeate the book, as the complex relationships between nurses, their medical colleagues, governments and the populations they nurse are examined in detail, using case studies which draw on exciting new sources. Many of the chapters are based on first-hand accounts of nurses, producing a view of the colonial process from the ground, or use multiple sources to piece together a story which was never recorded in its entirety in official records. It offers insight into the colonial process as conducted by British, Dutch, American and Italian governments; and how nursing not only affected colonial societies but was itself changed by its experiences.

This book will be of interest to a wide range of readers, be they gender, cultural or social historians, and of course to historians of nursing and colonialism.

Helen Sweet is a Research Associate at the Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine, University of Oxford

Sue Hawkins is a Senior Lecturer in History at Kingston University London