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The Black Angels: The Untold Story of the Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis
New York City, 1929. A sanatorium, a deadly disease, and a dire nurse shortage. So begins the remarkable true story of the Black nurses who helped cure one of the world’s deadliest plagues: tuberculosis.
During those dark pre-antibiotic days, when tuberculosis killed one in seven people, white nurses at Sea View, New York’s largest municipal hospital, began quitting. Desperate to avert a public health crisis, city officials summoned Black southern nurses, luring them with promises of good pay, a career, and an escape from the strictures of Jim Crow. But after arriving, they found themselves on an isolated hilltop in the remote borough of Staten Island, yet again confronting racism and consigned to a woefully understaffed facility, dubbed “the pest house” where “no one left alive.”
Spanning the Great Depression and moving through World War II and beyond, this story follows the intrepid young women, the “Black Angels,” who, for twenty years, risked their lives working under dreadful conditions while caring for the city’s poorest—1,800 souls languishing in wards, waiting to die or become “guinea pigs” for experimental (often deadly) drugs. Yet despite their major role in desegregating the NYC hospital system—and regardless of their vital work in helping to find the cure for tuberculosis at Sea View—these nurses were completely erased from history. The Black Angels recovers the voices of these extraordinary women and puts them at the center of this riveting story celebrating their legacy and spirit of survival.
During those dark pre-antibiotic days, when tuberculosis killed one in seven people, white nurses at Sea View, New York’s largest municipal hospital, began quitting. Desperate to avert a public health crisis, city officials summoned Black southern nurses, luring them with promises of good pay, a career, and an escape from the strictures of Jim Crow. But after arriving, they found themselves on an isolated hilltop in the remote borough of Staten Island, yet again confronting racism and consigned to a woefully understaffed facility, dubbed “the pest house” where “no one left alive.”
Spanning the Great Depression and moving through World War II and beyond, this story follows the intrepid young women, the “Black Angels,” who, for twenty years, risked their lives working under dreadful conditions while caring for the city’s poorest—1,800 souls languishing in wards, waiting to die or become “guinea pigs” for experimental (often deadly) drugs. Yet despite their major role in desegregating the NYC hospital system—and regardless of their vital work in helping to find the cure for tuberculosis at Sea View—these nurses were completely erased from history. The Black Angels recovers the voices of these extraordinary women and puts them at the center of this riveting story celebrating their legacy and spirit of survival.
448 pages, Hardcover
Published September 19, 2023
About the author
Maria Smilios
2 books48 followersMaria Smilios learned about the Black Angels while working as a science book editor at Springer Publishing. As a native New Yorker and lover of history, medicine, and women's narratives, she became determined to tell their story. In addition to interviewing historians, archivists, and medical professionals, she spent years immersed in the lives and stories of those close to these extraordinary women.
Maria holds a master of arts in religion and literature from Boston University, where she was a Luce scholar and taught in the religion and writing program. She has written for The Guardian, Narratively, The Forward, Dame Magazine, The Rumpus, and others, The Black Angels is her first book.
Maria holds a master of arts in religion and literature from Boston University, where she was a Luce scholar and taught in the religion and writing program. She has written for The Guardian, Narratively, The Forward, Dame Magazine, The Rumpus, and others, The Black Angels is her first book.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 203 reviews
September 28, 2023
New York had a hospital for indigent tuberculosis patients on Staten Island called Seaview. They had great trouble finding medical staff since it was a dangerous place to work, so they recruited Black nurses from the south, promising education and employment. Assuming that at least it wasn't the Jim Crow treatment they had experienced in their hometowns, many journeyed north. They still experienced racism, not to mention a very challenging work environment. The author did extensive research and interviews, and we follow several of the "Black Angels" through their remarkable careers. A fascinating look at a little known bit of history.
December 10, 2023
This was a rough but important read. Tuberculosis is one of histories biggest killers and it is even today the 2nd deadliest infectious disease, killing roughly 1.5 million people a year. Like with most highly contagious diseases its most deadly in underdeveloped countries. I first heard about Tuberculosis years ago when I was watching a tv show Boardwalk Empire, the wife of one of the characters died of consumption which through a Google search I discovered was Tuberculosis. I had no clue just how awful this disease was until I read this book though.
The Black Angels is about Black Tuberculosis nurses in New York City in the 1940s. So not only are we dealing with a highly deadly disease but we are also dealing with racism. Racism and medical horror often go hand in hand( I'm still not ready to read Medical Apartheid), white people can always find time to be racist even when they are supposed to be finding a cure to a horrible disease. The Black nurses we meet in this book are unsung heroes. They put their lives on the line to care for these gravely ill patients. They were disrespected, underpaid and basically told they were not wanted even when they were the only nurses that this hospital could get. White nurses had options so they left to save their own lives but Black nurses needed the jobs so the risked not only their own lives but the lives of their loved ones as well.
The Black Angels is an important story about a part of history that doesn't get discussed much if it gets discussed at all. This book was on the Goodreads Choice awards and while I wouldn't have voted for it to win it is a close second for me.
A Must Read!
The Black Angels is about Black Tuberculosis nurses in New York City in the 1940s. So not only are we dealing with a highly deadly disease but we are also dealing with racism. Racism and medical horror often go hand in hand( I'm still not ready to read Medical Apartheid), white people can always find time to be racist even when they are supposed to be finding a cure to a horrible disease. The Black nurses we meet in this book are unsung heroes. They put their lives on the line to care for these gravely ill patients. They were disrespected, underpaid and basically told they were not wanted even when they were the only nurses that this hospital could get. White nurses had options so they left to save their own lives but Black nurses needed the jobs so the risked not only their own lives but the lives of their loved ones as well.
The Black Angels is an important story about a part of history that doesn't get discussed much if it gets discussed at all. This book was on the Goodreads Choice awards and while I wouldn't have voted for it to win it is a close second for me.
A Must Read!
August 5, 2023
Tuberculosis is one of those diseases that doesn't scare us today but used to strike fear in humans for thousands of years. After all, it killed the Bronte sisters, Doc Holliday, and Andrew Jackson. That's a very wide variety of personalities as examples. It stalked everyone and no one could tell when it would decide to start killing you.
Maria Smilios' The Black Angels takes a look at the final days of the disease through the eyes of Black nurses in a tuberculosis hospital on Staten Island called Sea View in the early to mid 1900s. The reason why Black nurses stepped into this moment in history is mostly because White nurses wanted nothing to do with TB wards and had other options. Another major part of the narrative is the various doctors working to find a cure for TB.
The book is excellent from beginning to end. I should warn readers that there are a few times where the Black nurses disappear for a chapter or two while discussing the doctors' journey to the TB cure. Smilios is a very good writer and these sections are still enjoyable without feeling disjointed. That said, I did want more time with the nurses.
The time we do get with the nurses is exceptional. I can't articulate why, but Smilios had me invested from the very beginning in the lives of Edna and Americus specifically. These sisters and their sacrifices set a powerful reminder of what was at stake and how life during these days could change on a dime. I won't spoil anything, but be prepared to have some feelings.
(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Penguin Group Putnam.)
Maria Smilios' The Black Angels takes a look at the final days of the disease through the eyes of Black nurses in a tuberculosis hospital on Staten Island called Sea View in the early to mid 1900s. The reason why Black nurses stepped into this moment in history is mostly because White nurses wanted nothing to do with TB wards and had other options. Another major part of the narrative is the various doctors working to find a cure for TB.
The book is excellent from beginning to end. I should warn readers that there are a few times where the Black nurses disappear for a chapter or two while discussing the doctors' journey to the TB cure. Smilios is a very good writer and these sections are still enjoyable without feeling disjointed. That said, I did want more time with the nurses.
The time we do get with the nurses is exceptional. I can't articulate why, but Smilios had me invested from the very beginning in the lives of Edna and Americus specifically. These sisters and their sacrifices set a powerful reminder of what was at stake and how life during these days could change on a dime. I won't spoil anything, but be prepared to have some feelings.
(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Penguin Group Putnam.)
October 9, 2023
Excellent writing and facts that should make this a required reading for high school students. This book is full of information about scientific research that lead to “the gold standard for (TB) treatment”-Isoniazid. Tuberculosis “remains the second leading infectious disease in the world”. This story was hidden because of racism and classism. Those in charge did not want Sea View (a city hospital filled with poor immigrants and Black people (both patients and nurses) to receive credit for performing the human clinical trials that lead to the development of Isoniazid. White women were causing destruction in stores to buy pantyhose after the War while Black people were living horrible injustices everyday solely based on the color of their skin. White nurses refused to work at Sea View so Black nurses showed up. This is what we mean when we say “Black history is American history”. The wisdom, self-control, love, hope, and strength these women demonstrated is not something most of us could have done. I am fortunate enough to not know about a struggle like theirs and I don’t because they did.
February 28, 2024
Setting: New York City, USA; 1929 on.
In 1929 America, there was no cure for tuberculosis and the Mayor of New York established a purpose-built hospital for TB sufferers on Staten Island called Sea View. This was all well and good but, in the absence of safe practices and PPE for healthcare staff, the predominantly white nurses started to leave, causing a staff shortage.
In the Deep South, racial segregation was still in place (the 'Jim Crow' laws) and, although many black women had received training as nurses, there were few hospitals that would employ them. New York City health officials targeted these black nurses with the promise of good pay and a career away from the Jim Crow segregation, providing they were willing to work in the TB hospital at Sea View - many did so and, despite the belief among many white senior nurses and doctors that black nurses weren't as 'intelligent' or 'capable' as white nurses, they soon became prevalent and eventually recognised as capable of higher positions. These black nurses were soon instrumental in the process of trialling the new drug treatments that were eventually developed - the patients generally agreed to be 'guinea pigs' as these drug treatments were their last hope, even though many had unfortunate side-effects.....
Set against a background of racial tension, even in New York itself where many nurses lived in the black 'ghetto' of Harlem, this was a stirring narrative of a time in history of which I was little aware and it was definitely an intriguing and well-written read, concentrating as it did on several 'main' characters whose families the author interviewed at length. Their achievements and dedication to duty needs to be recognised and hopefully this book goes some way to doing just that! - 8.5/10.
In 1929 America, there was no cure for tuberculosis and the Mayor of New York established a purpose-built hospital for TB sufferers on Staten Island called Sea View. This was all well and good but, in the absence of safe practices and PPE for healthcare staff, the predominantly white nurses started to leave, causing a staff shortage.
In the Deep South, racial segregation was still in place (the 'Jim Crow' laws) and, although many black women had received training as nurses, there were few hospitals that would employ them. New York City health officials targeted these black nurses with the promise of good pay and a career away from the Jim Crow segregation, providing they were willing to work in the TB hospital at Sea View - many did so and, despite the belief among many white senior nurses and doctors that black nurses weren't as 'intelligent' or 'capable' as white nurses, they soon became prevalent and eventually recognised as capable of higher positions. These black nurses were soon instrumental in the process of trialling the new drug treatments that were eventually developed - the patients generally agreed to be 'guinea pigs' as these drug treatments were their last hope, even though many had unfortunate side-effects.....
Set against a background of racial tension, even in New York itself where many nurses lived in the black 'ghetto' of Harlem, this was a stirring narrative of a time in history of which I was little aware and it was definitely an intriguing and well-written read, concentrating as it did on several 'main' characters whose families the author interviewed at length. Their achievements and dedication to duty needs to be recognised and hopefully this book goes some way to doing just that! - 8.5/10.
June 3, 2024
Author Maria Smilios was a science editor when she learned about the Black nurses who helped cure TB in the 1940s and ’50s. While this deeply researched story is about the nurses in the earlier portion of the book, it is more accurately the history of TB, all the people who researched cures, and the nurses. Their stories add a human element that allows the book to be told like a novel in the beginning, but this is most definitely nonfiction with comprehensive back-of-book sections of documentation and research. And it is a bit disjointed.
It opens with the deeply personal story of Black nurses, one in particular. She and her colleagues fight for equal rights, education, and work. And then their thread is almost completely lost as the book becomes the story of the development of treatments. At the end, Smilios doubles back to the nurses, but the wrap-up wasn’t enough to make the entire book hang together for me. The title is catchy, but if you aren’t interested in the history of TB, medical research, etc., you may be disappointed.
There was also a strange unfinished bit about side effects from the eventual cure. There is the suggestion that some patients were too sick to benefit from the drug, but one very dramatic side effect was vividly described and then never resolved.
I don’t know that any of this is fixable editorially. Smilios followed the story like a terrific journalist and went where the research took her. I wonder if the fractured story might make more sense in an episodic form—as excerpts in the New Yorker or adapted to a PBS TV series.
Despite this, I enjoyed it and appreciated the education it offered.
It opens with the deeply personal story of Black nurses, one in particular. She and her colleagues fight for equal rights, education, and work. And then their thread is almost completely lost as the book becomes the story of the development of treatments. At the end, Smilios doubles back to the nurses, but the wrap-up wasn’t enough to make the entire book hang together for me. The title is catchy, but if you aren’t interested in the history of TB, medical research, etc., you may be disappointed.
There was also a strange unfinished bit about side effects from the eventual cure. There is the suggestion that some patients were too sick to benefit from the drug, but one very dramatic side effect was vividly described and then never resolved.
I don’t know that any of this is fixable editorially. Smilios followed the story like a terrific journalist and went where the research took her. I wonder if the fractured story might make more sense in an episodic form—as excerpts in the New Yorker or adapted to a PBS TV series.
Despite this, I enjoyed it and appreciated the education it offered.
May 21, 2023
This was a story of which I knew nothing. I had a great-grandmother and a great-uncle who died of tuberculosis in the early 20th century, as well as multiple more distant relations, and I knew people don't seem to die of it anymore, and that was all I knew.
This book has an epic tale to tell - of black women who persisted in the nursing profession through the northern variations of racism in New York City, as well as of the search for drugs that would halt the progression of the disease.
Smilios tells these tales simultaneously, and chronologically, so chapters alternate between various doctors and researchers, and the nurses as they worked at Sea View TB hospital on Staten Island and attempted to organize for acceptance across the medical establishment. This is an understandable choice; sometimes it does feel like it bounces around and doesn't entirely tell the story of the search for the cure and you lose track of who all the medical people are.
But you never lose track of the nurses. This book is written in such a way as to be widely read - despite the amount of research that must have gone into it, it reads like a thriller, which will find it an audience despite maybe alienating people who wish it was a little less breathless, or can do without the repeated insistence on how generally disgusting the work was. The stories of the nurses needs to be told. Under the supervision of a doctor who respected and relied on their professionalism and capability, they conducted the first large controlled trial of the first drug that seemed to defeat the illness.
It was a little shocking to me to realize that the final events of the book, where drugs are finally found that cure most patients, took place in the early 1950s, and that up until so close to when I was born people still contracted and died of it.
Despite its flaws of organization and sometimes tone, this is an important book that deserves to be read by anyone interested in the evolution of American society or the history of tuberculosis.
A few word choices could use attention in the final correction of the proof - 'onerous' is not a word used to describe a person, perhaps she's looking for 'overbearing'? And about half of the uses of the word 'flaunting' ought to be reworded because there are too many!
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read an advance copy of this book.
This book has an epic tale to tell - of black women who persisted in the nursing profession through the northern variations of racism in New York City, as well as of the search for drugs that would halt the progression of the disease.
Smilios tells these tales simultaneously, and chronologically, so chapters alternate between various doctors and researchers, and the nurses as they worked at Sea View TB hospital on Staten Island and attempted to organize for acceptance across the medical establishment. This is an understandable choice; sometimes it does feel like it bounces around and doesn't entirely tell the story of the search for the cure and you lose track of who all the medical people are.
But you never lose track of the nurses. This book is written in such a way as to be widely read - despite the amount of research that must have gone into it, it reads like a thriller, which will find it an audience despite maybe alienating people who wish it was a little less breathless, or can do without the repeated insistence on how generally disgusting the work was. The stories of the nurses needs to be told. Under the supervision of a doctor who respected and relied on their professionalism and capability, they conducted the first large controlled trial of the first drug that seemed to defeat the illness.
It was a little shocking to me to realize that the final events of the book, where drugs are finally found that cure most patients, took place in the early 1950s, and that up until so close to when I was born people still contracted and died of it.
Despite its flaws of organization and sometimes tone, this is an important book that deserves to be read by anyone interested in the evolution of American society or the history of tuberculosis.
A few word choices could use attention in the final correction of the proof - 'onerous' is not a word used to describe a person, perhaps she's looking for 'overbearing'? And about half of the uses of the word 'flaunting' ought to be reworded because there are too many!
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read an advance copy of this book.
July 10, 2023
This is the wonderful, exhaustively-researched and educational story of the “Black Angels”, the black nurses who joined the Sea View TB hospital on Staten Island in the late 1920s, to help and comfort New York City’s poorest and immigrant people that were overcome with TB. Through Edna Sutton, a young woman from Savannah with the dream of becoming a nurse, Smilios weaves together the stories of TB in the early-mid 1900s, the early role of the Sea View Sanatorium as a “great clearinghouse for TB patients” and its later role in the meticulous clinical study of Isoniazid (the treatment that is still used today), the racism that black nurses had to endure in order to become and get hired as nurses as well as to be able to buy homes on the island, and the international race to find a cure for TB including its several iterations. It tells the human story not only of the black angels, but also the Sea View patients, many of whom went there with the expectation to die and be forgotten. It also includes interesting tidbits about Potter’s Field, and George Orwell and the Orwellian symptoms.
Thanks to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.
Thanks to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.
May 2, 2024
I am incredibly fortunate to have stumbled upon this magnificent book, published on 9/17/23, at this particular point in my life!
Ms. Smilios writes quite adeptly and frankly about the Black nurses at Seaview on Staten Island, since 1949, caring for patients suffering from the airborne 'White Death' that today still kills 1.5 million people and is the 2nd leading infectious disease on the earth even though 66 million have been saved since 1952 with a cocktail of isoniazid, strepimyasine, etc.
Well, as fate would have it, due to the start of the airborne infectious 2020 COVID crisis, our family began meeting monthly on the 4th Sunday over Zoom in 2021 to stay bonded with each other.
I became the Archivist and Historian for this group. My grandfather, Chris, from Barbados, was there only a year and died at Seaview at age 27 on 11/17/1927, leaving my pregnant grandmother, Gladys, also from Barbados, to raise two small children under the age of 6 all alone.
Even though Ms. Smilio's book takes place two years after my granddad passed, it eloquently filled the giant hole I was carrying. I wanted to know so desperately what his days and treatments, if any, could've been like at Seaview.
To imagine what a 'crap shoot' an immigrant's life might be in this new world! To survive the journey, make it through Ellis Island and acquire decent housing, a job, and a decent wife. Be blessed by God twice with children, and now the promise of a third son in the bum. LIFE is GOOD.
But the other side of the mountain is what you tumble down. Chris had been having unproductive coughing with sputum and phylummi. After a month, Chris's coughs finally produce splatters of red blood, phy.
when he left his pregnant wife and kids, knowing he'd never see them again!
You helped me fill in that hole. I'm forever grateful.
Ms. Smilios writes quite adeptly and frankly about the Black nurses at Seaview on Staten Island, since 1949, caring for patients suffering from the airborne 'White Death' that today still kills 1.5 million people and is the 2nd leading infectious disease on the earth even though 66 million have been saved since 1952 with a cocktail of isoniazid, strepimyasine, etc.
Well, as fate would have it, due to the start of the airborne infectious 2020 COVID crisis, our family began meeting monthly on the 4th Sunday over Zoom in 2021 to stay bonded with each other.
I became the Archivist and Historian for this group. My grandfather, Chris, from Barbados, was there only a year and died at Seaview at age 27 on 11/17/1927, leaving my pregnant grandmother, Gladys, also from Barbados, to raise two small children under the age of 6 all alone.
Even though Ms. Smilio's book takes place two years after my granddad passed, it eloquently filled the giant hole I was carrying. I wanted to know so desperately what his days and treatments, if any, could've been like at Seaview.
To imagine what a 'crap shoot' an immigrant's life might be in this new world! To survive the journey, make it through Ellis Island and acquire decent housing, a job, and a decent wife. Be blessed by God twice with children, and now the promise of a third son in the bum. LIFE is GOOD.
But the other side of the mountain is what you tumble down. Chris had been having unproductive coughing with sputum and phylummi. After a month, Chris's coughs finally produce splatters of red blood, phy.
when he left his pregnant wife and kids, knowing he'd never see them again!
You helped me fill in that hole. I'm forever grateful.
February 1, 2024
What an excellent book. I found it hard to put down and stayed up entirely too late the past few nights. I thought I knew a bit about tuberculosis, but turns out, I knew next to nothing. This is a book, not only about the quest for a cure for this hideous infection, but also the story of black nurses. They were underpaid, overworked, and abused when all they wanted was the opportunity to have a career, a decent paycheck, and a home to call their own. I would highly recommend this one for anyone who likes medical history.
November 25, 2023
November Morbidly Curious Book Club pick!
July 22, 2024
My first real job was working in the diet kitchens of a former TB sanatorium in the early 1970s. I also happened to be a child exposed to TB and treated for this exposure in the early 1960s. Follow this up with an almost 30 year career as a public health nurse. This author did a phenomenal job capturing the fear, the sounds, the smells and the science of these times. Despite my connections to TB, I did not know about the Black Angels. I also now have a much greater understanding of my parents' fears regarding TB and all of the other childhood diseases that are often taken for granted now thanks to vaccines. This book is a must read for all who still struggle to understand the public health response to Covid 19. I also loved the photos, the thorough notes and bibliography. Well done!
June 20, 2023
This is an exhaustively-researched account of 1) tuberculosis in America in the 20th century, 2) a particular sanitarium named Seaview in New York, 3) the Black women who worked there as nurses (because the white nurses all quit because the work was difficult and dangerous), and 4) the long process of finding the cure to tuberculosis. The narrative jumps around between these major topics and while at times can feel slightly disjointed, I do appreciate the breadth that the book covers. Smilios' discussion of the frank racism that these women faced both personally and professionally make up the bulk of the book and provide an excellent addition into the works about medical racism.
I happen to love a good disease overview book, so this was right in my wheelhouse, would recommend. Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC.
I happen to love a good disease overview book, so this was right in my wheelhouse, would recommend. Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC.
July 9, 2023
I love this book. Smilios is a fantastic writer and this is a spectacular story. This is a must read!
August 2, 2024
It's a beautiful thing to read a book where the author was clearly so passionate about the subject matter. That was the case in The Black Angels: The Untold Story of the Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis.
Smilios' highly-researched deep dive into the lives of these compassionate trailblazers is a powerful reminder of the importance of intersectionality in healthcare. By centering the narratives of Black women nurses at the forefront of the deadly TB epidemic, she illuminates a critical aspect of medical history that's been glossed over for far too long.
The story of The Black Angels offers a stark contrast to the often sanitized portrayal of medical progress; highlighting issues like unethical experimentation, inhumane treatment, and lack of access to resources. Their composure in the face of appalling conditions and systemic racism is both inspiring and heartbreaking.
The distrust many underserved communities hold towards the medical field is rooted in historical injustices like those documented in this book. Smilios's work shines a light on the complex and often oppressive systems that have shaped healthcare in America, making The Black Angels an essential read for anyone interested in digging up the toxic roots of health disparities.
Smilios' highly-researched deep dive into the lives of these compassionate trailblazers is a powerful reminder of the importance of intersectionality in healthcare. By centering the narratives of Black women nurses at the forefront of the deadly TB epidemic, she illuminates a critical aspect of medical history that's been glossed over for far too long.
The story of The Black Angels offers a stark contrast to the often sanitized portrayal of medical progress; highlighting issues like unethical experimentation, inhumane treatment, and lack of access to resources. Their composure in the face of appalling conditions and systemic racism is both inspiring and heartbreaking.
The distrust many underserved communities hold towards the medical field is rooted in historical injustices like those documented in this book. Smilios's work shines a light on the complex and often oppressive systems that have shaped healthcare in America, making The Black Angels an essential read for anyone interested in digging up the toxic roots of health disparities.
December 6, 2023
This is one amazing book. I knew very little about Tuberculosis and what I did know was very "romanticized". Boy was I in for an awakening - a giant, information-filled awakening and I am so glad I learned all I did [even the parts that were understandably extremely gross].
So much honor should be given to those who worked so tirelessness in the Staten Island hospital, both against the ravages of a complex disease, but also against racism and segregation, both in where they lived and where they worked. Some of the stories were absolutely heart-breaking, yet these amazing women just plugged on, doing their jobs with patience and excellence, truly caring for each person that passed through their wards - they all deserve all the recognition that can come their way.
This was absolutely brilliant and I am so glad I had the opportunity to read this and learn all about these amazing women and what it took to up with a cure and all they did to help that when it did come. I highly recommend this book.
Thank you to NetGalley, Maria Smilios, and Penguin Group Putnam/G. P. Putnam's Son for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
So much honor should be given to those who worked so tirelessness in the Staten Island hospital, both against the ravages of a complex disease, but also against racism and segregation, both in where they lived and where they worked. Some of the stories were absolutely heart-breaking, yet these amazing women just plugged on, doing their jobs with patience and excellence, truly caring for each person that passed through their wards - they all deserve all the recognition that can come their way.
This was absolutely brilliant and I am so glad I had the opportunity to read this and learn all about these amazing women and what it took to up with a cure and all they did to help that when it did come. I highly recommend this book.
Thank you to NetGalley, Maria Smilios, and Penguin Group Putnam/G. P. Putnam's Son for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Shelved as 'wishlist'
June 13, 2024The Morbidly Curious Book Club November 2023 Selection
November 27, 2023
I loved reading about the fight of the black angels and showed perseverance and guts despite the risk.
January 14, 2024
3.75 Stars
This was a well-written book on quite a bit of the history of tuberculosis and those fighting it in the US in the 20th century. Not only that, but it touches on so much more regarding what Black nurses all over the country were facing during this time period. I'm really grateful the author included so much about their work lives, but also the battles the nurses had outside the hospital walls.
I learned a lot about Black nurses and their struggles in the US from the 1920s through the 1950s, Sea View Hospital on Staten Island, and the discovery and introduction of multiple different drugs to fight tuberculosis. I loved learning about the individual nurses, what led them to Sea View, and their lives outside their jobs. I also am glad some of the book focused on the scientists who discovered the various drugs to help cure TB and the doctors who initiated the methods of distribution and testing.
I wish the book was a little bit more linear, however. While it does follow a chronological order in the chapters, it still jumps forward to tell certain stories quickly and then puts you back in the overarching story. I'm glad for the asides, but I also felt like things got a little muddled with that type of storytelling. And knowing the rest of the story, I honestly kind of wish the book didn't open with Virginia in the nurses residence since she only joined on at the tail end of the story. To me, her parts from the prologue would have been better suited in a final chapter. Lastly, I wish there was a final chapter looking at how the drugs that were discovered evolved over the years. There was a brief paragraph about things, but since a good portion of the book focused on the discovery of the medicine, I would have liked hearing a little bit more about the evolution. I know that's not what this book is about, but it would have been nice!
All of my critiques are nit-picky, though, and the book was well researched and thoughtful.
This was a well-written book on quite a bit of the history of tuberculosis and those fighting it in the US in the 20th century. Not only that, but it touches on so much more regarding what Black nurses all over the country were facing during this time period. I'm really grateful the author included so much about their work lives, but also the battles the nurses had outside the hospital walls.
I learned a lot about Black nurses and their struggles in the US from the 1920s through the 1950s, Sea View Hospital on Staten Island, and the discovery and introduction of multiple different drugs to fight tuberculosis. I loved learning about the individual nurses, what led them to Sea View, and their lives outside their jobs. I also am glad some of the book focused on the scientists who discovered the various drugs to help cure TB and the doctors who initiated the methods of distribution and testing.
I wish the book was a little bit more linear, however. While it does follow a chronological order in the chapters, it still jumps forward to tell certain stories quickly and then puts you back in the overarching story. I'm glad for the asides, but I also felt like things got a little muddled with that type of storytelling. And knowing the rest of the story, I honestly kind of wish the book didn't open with Virginia in the nurses residence since she only joined on at the tail end of the story. To me, her parts from the prologue would have been better suited in a final chapter. Lastly, I wish there was a final chapter looking at how the drugs that were discovered evolved over the years. There was a brief paragraph about things, but since a good portion of the book focused on the discovery of the medicine, I would have liked hearing a little bit more about the evolution. I know that's not what this book is about, but it would have been nice!
All of my critiques are nit-picky, though, and the book was well researched and thoughtful.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 31, 2023
An immersive novel that transports you back to the Harlem Renaissance, the Great Depression and World War 2 as doctors and scientists tried to develop a cure for TB.
Extremely informative and written in such an engaging style that it almost feels like a science fiction novel. It gives these brave nurses a chance to finally have their story heard. Not only did they have to fight tb in deplorable conditions, but they had to fight against systematic racism in America.
A must read.
Extremely informative and written in such an engaging style that it almost feels like a science fiction novel. It gives these brave nurses a chance to finally have their story heard. Not only did they have to fight tb in deplorable conditions, but they had to fight against systematic racism in America.
A must read.
July 30, 2024
1) I had no business reading this book. None. Book club did me dirty.
2) You may have business reading this book if you are deeply interested in a nonfiction account of diseases, medical research, nursing, and words like sputum.
3) I would like to never hear the word sputum again. Please refer back to point #1.
4) All was not lost: The author writes nice vivid descriptions (often too vivid for my gag reflex). I liked the sections that delved deeper into the historical and cultural context surrounding the tuberculosis epidemic. There are a few specific nurses and researchers featured throughout the book, which seemed like a good angle to humanize the whole subject, but I eventually lost interest in the mundane details of their lives. The side tangents often went on too long. No one person in this saga seemed interesting enough to carry the narrative. Refer back to point #2 if you need a reminder on what does carry the narrative.
5) I listened to this on audio. I wish someone could release a remixed version of the audiobook that features my loud visceral reactions to particularly disgusting medical passages. I think it could really work as a fun special feature, like when actors and directors do movie commentaries. Just me making flailing groaning noises in the background of autopsy scenes and descriptions of phlegm, sawed off ribs, punctured chest cavities, etc. Please refer back to point #1.
2) You may have business reading this book if you are deeply interested in a nonfiction account of diseases, medical research, nursing, and words like sputum.
3) I would like to never hear the word sputum again. Please refer back to point #1.
4) All was not lost: The author writes nice vivid descriptions (often too vivid for my gag reflex). I liked the sections that delved deeper into the historical and cultural context surrounding the tuberculosis epidemic. There are a few specific nurses and researchers featured throughout the book, which seemed like a good angle to humanize the whole subject, but I eventually lost interest in the mundane details of their lives. The side tangents often went on too long. No one person in this saga seemed interesting enough to carry the narrative. Refer back to point #2 if you need a reminder on what does carry the narrative.
5) I listened to this on audio. I wish someone could release a remixed version of the audiobook that features my loud visceral reactions to particularly disgusting medical passages. I think it could really work as a fun special feature, like when actors and directors do movie commentaries. Just me making flailing groaning noises in the background of autopsy scenes and descriptions of phlegm, sawed off ribs, punctured chest cavities, etc. Please refer back to point #1.
Read
November 24, 2023This was chosen by Patricia Fara, Emeritus Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge and columnist at History Today, as one of History Today’s Books of the Year 2023.
Find out why at HistoryToday.com.
Find out why at HistoryToday.com.
February 3, 2024
This story needs to be taught in schools if it’s not already. These black women risked their lives during a difficult time.
April 8, 2024
A must read for those of us interested in history of diseases, cure, prevention. We have never given credit to the black heroes in our history. This is a great insight into these women.
March 19, 2024
Never realized !
July 23, 2024
A fantastic story-history read: the author uses personal stories to tell history!! One caveat: the author left hanging the reason for some patients’ mental side effects with the winning drug. What happened? She doesn’t explain it. But that’s just a tiny issue with a fabulous book!!!
October 8, 2023
Excerpt from Black Book Stacks vía Substack
It takes a special kind of person to be a nurse. Given the history of healthcare in this country, and how the healthcare system has exploited, maimed and killed Black people (for more background, Harriet Washington’s Medical Apartheid, and more recently, Linda Villarosa’s Under the Skin) it takes an extraordinary faith in humanity for Black people to follow their vocations in health and healthcare. Much of my work in the world now is focused on communicating about racism as the root cause of health disparities in this country and moving the blame for what has ailed Black people away from their individual choices, shifting the blame where it belongs: With systemic racism and those who protect systems that privilege white health and wellbeing over everyone and everything else.
I thought about this throughout Maria Smilios’ beautiful new book, The Black Angels: The Untold Story of the Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis. It’s an important treasure focused on the little known Black nurses during the 1940s & 50s who assisted doctors at a Staten Island municipal facility called Sea View as they discovered a cure for tuberculosis, the plague of that time that continues to have an impact around the world. White nurses were quitting so fast they couldn’t be replaced by anyone but Black nurses from the South, lured North by the promise of better, more dignified work and enough money to live.
The Black Angels opens with the story of the last surviving nurse who worked at Sea View, Virginia Allen, and with clear and novelistic prose, describes the hostility and low expectations that followed Black women who were willing to expose themselves to disease even to treat Nazi soldiers. The disrespectful treatment they endured in segregated then barely integrated hospitals and healthcare settings is tough to read, but important to remember. Racism in nursing is still very much a part of the health and healthcare system in America, and seeing its long continuum, and naming it, may eventually help us to interrupt it, maybe, I hope, eliminate it in another lifetime.
Though The Black Angels is nonfiction, it reads like historical fiction with its details of how tuberculosis was killing one in seven individuals, the patients whose lungs gave out, the ones who eventually were cured and could leave, when they thought they might be confined to a hospital bed at the end of their lives.
It takes a special kind of person to be a nurse. Given the history of healthcare in this country, and how the healthcare system has exploited, maimed and killed Black people (for more background, Harriet Washington’s Medical Apartheid, and more recently, Linda Villarosa’s Under the Skin) it takes an extraordinary faith in humanity for Black people to follow their vocations in health and healthcare. Much of my work in the world now is focused on communicating about racism as the root cause of health disparities in this country and moving the blame for what has ailed Black people away from their individual choices, shifting the blame where it belongs: With systemic racism and those who protect systems that privilege white health and wellbeing over everyone and everything else.
I thought about this throughout Maria Smilios’ beautiful new book, The Black Angels: The Untold Story of the Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis. It’s an important treasure focused on the little known Black nurses during the 1940s & 50s who assisted doctors at a Staten Island municipal facility called Sea View as they discovered a cure for tuberculosis, the plague of that time that continues to have an impact around the world. White nurses were quitting so fast they couldn’t be replaced by anyone but Black nurses from the South, lured North by the promise of better, more dignified work and enough money to live.
The Black Angels opens with the story of the last surviving nurse who worked at Sea View, Virginia Allen, and with clear and novelistic prose, describes the hostility and low expectations that followed Black women who were willing to expose themselves to disease even to treat Nazi soldiers. The disrespectful treatment they endured in segregated then barely integrated hospitals and healthcare settings is tough to read, but important to remember. Racism in nursing is still very much a part of the health and healthcare system in America, and seeing its long continuum, and naming it, may eventually help us to interrupt it, maybe, I hope, eliminate it in another lifetime.
Though The Black Angels is nonfiction, it reads like historical fiction with its details of how tuberculosis was killing one in seven individuals, the patients whose lungs gave out, the ones who eventually were cured and could leave, when they thought they might be confined to a hospital bed at the end of their lives.
July 3, 2024
Great book! In 1948 my father, at the age of 15, was diagnosed with tuberculous and entered a sanitarium where he remained for 4 years. My maternal grandfather died of TB around the same time. After my father got out of the sanitarium he had a few more bouts of TB before he finally received the drugs that cure it. That was in 1965. But the drug was available, as you learn in this book, several years before that.
Am absolutely amazing piece of history. Well written and engaging despite the tough topics it covers--the drug industry, early medicine and how antibiotics were discovered and tested, tuberculous and the recognition of the skill and dedication of black nurses.
Am absolutely amazing piece of history. Well written and engaging despite the tough topics it covers--the drug industry, early medicine and how antibiotics were discovered and tested, tuberculous and the recognition of the skill and dedication of black nurses.
July 5, 2023
This story is incredible and I loved everything about it. The writing like some have mentioned is beautiful and the amount of research that went into telling it is astonishing. From page 1, the author captures your attentions and takes you on the journey of the Black nurses who leave the Jim Crow south to seek a better life at Sea View TB hospital in Staten Island but when they arrive they find themselves still facing racism and labor inequality.
Once on Staten Island, Smilios takes you inside the wards of Sea and introduces you to the patients, the poor men, women, and children of New York who have been sent away by the city to die. These stories of the patients and the nurses caring for them are heartbreaking, especially the sections dealing with the kids.
Alongside the nurses caring for these people and fighting to desegregate the NY hospital system (I had not idea NY had segregated hospitals) Smilios tells you the second part of the narrative, a moving account of how doctors are racing to find a cure.
In the end, the book stayed with me for days and I found myself thinking about all the patients who died and those courageous nurses who endured such terrible racism but still continued working with this deadly disease. I hope this becomes required reading and like Hidden Figures the Black Angels become known around the world.
Go read this book now!
Once on Staten Island, Smilios takes you inside the wards of Sea and introduces you to the patients, the poor men, women, and children of New York who have been sent away by the city to die. These stories of the patients and the nurses caring for them are heartbreaking, especially the sections dealing with the kids.
Alongside the nurses caring for these people and fighting to desegregate the NY hospital system (I had not idea NY had segregated hospitals) Smilios tells you the second part of the narrative, a moving account of how doctors are racing to find a cure.
In the end, the book stayed with me for days and I found myself thinking about all the patients who died and those courageous nurses who endured such terrible racism but still continued working with this deadly disease. I hope this becomes required reading and like Hidden Figures the Black Angels become known around the world.
Go read this book now!
October 23, 2023
This story follows the black nurses who, for twenty years, risked their lives working under dreadful conditions while caring for the city’s poorest. When white nurses walked off the job and refused to care for patients with TB, the call went out to black woman and nurses living in the "Jim Crow" south. They were promised an education, a place to live, and a living wage to take care of those infected with a disease that has existed since antiquity.
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