They hopped over rats to get to indigent patients, endured assaults upon their persons and characters, fell ill alongside those they sought to help, and died both in and out of war. Nursing has a tradition of strong and resilient people striving to serve patients and their families, and this collection of 17 essays certainly pays them all due respect. In addition, articles cover the issues nurses debate today, such as who actually does the real work of nursing. They describe those who do nurses' work from the family caregiver of nineteenth century America to African American community nurses in the first half of the twentieth century, nursing's ambivalent relationship with money, the nature of nurses' work, including studies from the height of the tuberculosis and polio eras, and the relationship of nursing work and knowledge as practices and anticipated patient outcomes shift and change. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)