“Roger Noyes weaves a rich historical narrative illuminating Clara D. Noyes’ development as a person, a professional and a global citizen … He contextualizes her life’s work within the framework of a world grappling with issues of woman suffrage, class, race, and gender disparities, and a world at war.”
-Sandra B. Lewenson, RN, EdD, FAAN, Pace University College of Health Professions, Lienhard School of Nursing, and author of Taking Charge: Nursing, Suffrage, and Feminism in America, 1873-1920
“With broad strokes, Noyes paints a portrait of a woman seized by a calling and driven by duty. She is fiercely competent and unintimidated by male authority that surrounds her on all sides … any hospital nurse who’s decently paid and any Army nurse saluted by an enlisted man is in her debt.”
-The Day Newspaper (New London, Connecticut)
Roger Noyes “has lifted Clara [Noyes] from obscurity in a painstakingly researched historical account that leaves the reader wondering how this woman, whose professional life intersected so many events on the national and world stage, is not just as widely recognized.”
-Press Republican Newspaper (Plattsburgh, New York)
“Why should Army nurses be interested in a seemingly forgotten nurse leader from the early twentieth century? The reason is simply that this is an engrossing, immensely readable, and well researched book that vividly describes the development of the first Army reserve, the American Red Cross nursing.”
-Colonel C.T. Moore (Ret.), Army Nurse Corps Association
“Clara Noyes led nurses to battle during World War I, to scenes of disaster during the flu pandemic and floods, and to the successful recognition of their military authority in the fight to gain officer status. More importantly, Roger Noyes has written a biography of a woman who wielded power and authority at a moment in time when few did. This biography deserves a wide read both by nurses and by those who seek to understand women’s leadership in a very public life.”
-University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing Professor Patricia D’Antonio, PhD, RN, FAAN
“The book about Clara Noyes reveals a lot of interesting questions about international contacts between the women’s organizations and their agents who supported the establishment of new educational institutions and changed the place of women in the public sphere. This opens a wide field for research of mutual influences, solidarity, power relations and hierarchies.”
-Kristina Popova, Book Review in Balkanistic Forum (an interdisciplinary journal of specialists addressing issues related to the Balkan nations and their situation in Europe)