Epilogue

Abstract

Throughout researching and writing Victorian Medicine and Social Reform, I have thought about how best to explain what Florence Nightingale’s legacy might be in the twenty-first century. There is no one way to describe her complex legacy. The breadth and depth of her knowledge about social problems in Britain, India, and elsewhere, and the broad effects of her reformist work seem to be all but unknown to the general public today; the name “Florence Nightingale” in my hearing has often been used almost as an insult to describe women perceived by the speaker to be either overly empathetic busy-bodies or obsequious caregivers wanting attention for their efforts. Perhaps it’s then no wonder that in 1999 Unison, the largest British trade union representing nurses, decided it was time to disassociate their profession from her example, to “exorcise the myth of Florence Nightingale” (qtd. in Bostridge 545).¹ As I hope this book makes evident, recent scholarship on Nightingale’s life and work has attempted to broaden the popular perception of her out from narrow iconic perceptions of her as either the self- sacrificing ministering angel to the troops during the Crimean War or as the stern, unforgiving bureaucrat who professionalized nursing.