Herbal Diplomats: The Contribution of Early American Nurses(1830-1860) to Nineteenth Century Health Care Reform and the Botanical Medical Movement, By Martha M.Libster,PhD,RN. 359 pages including glossary and extensive notes. Golden Apple Publications.

This very readable book provides an innovative historical perspective on the complexity inherent in the internal and external expectations assigned or assumed by community women and their creative use of the borderland between their private and public lives.
The work of Shaker, Latter-Day Saints nurses, and the American Sisters of Charity as influenced by their specific cultural environments as well as the general cultural impositions of 19th century American society is explored. Gender differences such as, societal restraints on female ambition and education clearly played a part in the ultimate contributions of each of these groups.

Those contributions tempered by society's slowly changing views of woman's proper place resulted in the degree of cultural integration of their remedies. The notion of cultural integration and the diplomacy required to achieve it is relevant today as nurses face the mounting health care crisis with a depleted workforce.

Historically nurses have encouraged enlightened self care in their education of and advocacy for patients and their families. As described here the healing networks established by these mid nineteenth century nurses provided for the tradition of open exploration of multiple forms of healing. Today in the ongoing age of consumerism, nurses continue to broker the attainment of the best level of health and illness care for their patients and their families.

The development and determination of those nurses who first approached the "borderland" is an interesting and inspiring story worth telling. The author offers a refreshing account of overlooked contributions to the historiography of health care and as such offers a refreshing perspective for students and scholars alike.

The contributions and influences of the American botanical medical movement have been subjected to considerable scrutiny by historians for more than fifty years.  But, as Martha M. Libster points out in her provocative and insightful Herbal Diplomats, the contributions of women have largely been ignored.  In this thoroughly researched and highly readable account, Libster addresses that deficit and offers a long overdue history of the women who played an appreciable role in this colorful and controversial health care phenomenon of the 19th century.  Herbal Diplomats offers a useful overview of antebellum health care that provides the context for a thorough discussion of women's contributions through several significant religious communities.  These combine to provide a collective account of women as nurses from a fresh and fascinating perspective. Looking at women as providers of this botanical care rather than as mere consumers, Libster gives the reader a detailed picture not only of 19th century medicine but also of the social milieu of the period.  As such, this book should be of interest to a wide readership, from medical, social and cultural historians to sociologists, students and specialists of women's and religious studies, and a general public interested in American health and history.  Because it speaks to such a wide and varied audience, both academic and public librarians will want Herbal Diplomats on their shelves.

"Dr. Libster 's work is an important contribution to an area of study in the history of nursing and health care in the United States. This is a work that has patiently waited 150 years to have its story told. Medical and nursing care of the nineteenth century commonly employed the use of herbal medicines. Dr. Libster offers a fine overview of that tradition. She skillfully integrates the history of the tradition of herbal medicine of the mid and late nineteenth century with the history of nursing identity and practice of the time. Then she offers the stories of three specific religious groups who each developed a unique tradition of nursing practice: the Shaker Infirmary and Community Nurses, the pioneer nurses and midwives of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), and the Sisters of Charity and early American Catholic hospitals. Though current members of any of the three groups may recognize Dr. Libster's orientation as an "observer,"  rather than member, she shows considerable sensitivity and facility in explaining the history of these three groups. She tells their stories in the context of the time regarding medical practice and nursing practice.

            "Herbal Diplomats is engaging and well referenced. It pushes the borders of traditional history of nursing and medicine that have focused on professional viewpoints. It expands our view toward an emerging look at history that moves beyond the study of solitary heroes or history of professional practice. It is a story of the reality of the work of nurses within the context of their culture and actual practice in the nineteenth century. It offers a glimpse of the connections among health care practice, religious and cultural context, and care for suffering. This work will become a significant addition to scholarship on the history of nursing, the history of women, and the history of health care among cultural and religious groups in America."

"Histories of medical practice written during the 19th century focus primarily on the activities of male physicians and overlook the critical roles played by women as healers and caregivers. In Herbal Diplomats, Martha Libster re-evaluates the contributions made by women to healthcare by looking at three distinct groups of nurses/care-givers. Using the journals and receipt books left by Shakers, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the Sisters of Charity, Libster is able to highlight the prominence of women's nursing activities in the health and healing of their families and communities over a dependence on academic medicine. Her insightful blending of women's traditional domestic roles with their understanding of botanicals helps to show how these women were able to provide a system of medical care they could use at home, how they shared their knowledge with other women in their communities, and how they informed the developing practices of the larger healthcare system."