Follet, Jennifer Frost, Maureen Galitski, Vanessa Northington Gamble,
Nancy Isenberg, Carl Kaestle, Marie Laberge, Anne Lewis, Laura McEna-
ney, Nellie McKay, Leisa Meyer, Lisa Peck, Mary Peckham, Doris Stor-
moen, and Janet Wright.

Since moving in 1991 to Canada, where universal health care is more
or less a reality, I have found a new network of support. I thank my col-
leagues at the University of Alberta, especially Laurie Adkin, Linda Bridges,
Lesley Cormack, Susan Hamilton, David Marples, Patricia Prestwich, and
Frances Swyripa, for helping me to make Canada my home.

Finally, several other scholars have offered valuable critical assessments
of some or all of this material at key points in the creation of this book. In
particular I want to thank Barbara Brodie, Darlene Clark Hine, Nancy
Tomes, and Molly Ladd-Taylor for their astute observations, and Robynne
Healey and Amrita Chakrabarti Myers for excellent research assistance. I
also want to thank the audiences who responded with warmth and keen
interest to various presentations of my research throughout the late 1980s
and early 1990s at the following conferences: the Southern Conference
on the History of Women, the Berkshire Conference on the History of
Women, the American Association for the History of Medicine Confer-
ence, the First International Conference for the History of Nursing, the
Smithsonian Institution Lecture Series on Black Health, the University of
Wisconsin System Women's Studies Conference, the conference on Black
Health: Historical Perspectives and Current Issues, the Midwest Graduate
Feminist Studies Conference, and the National Women's Studies Associa-
tion Conference.

It is customary to conclude the acknowledgments with thanks to one's
family, but it seems more appropriate to do so now. This book would have
never reached completion, at least in this century, without the incredible
support of my partner Donald Macnab. A psychologist by training, he
knew just the right words to say when self-doubt clouded my confidence
and yet one more task threatened to preempt my writing. I will forever
remember his loving refrain: "get the book done!" The birth of my daugh-
ter Caitlin, under the skillful guidance of midwives Sandy Pullin and Susan
James, and my two other lively children, Erin and Andreas, provided addi-
tional incentives to finally finish, while the care of Marie Hughes made it
possible. My first family gave me further encouragement, especially my
parents Lori and Bob Smith, as well as my brothers Jerry and Larry, my
aunts Norma and Carole, my grandmother Charlotte, and my best friends
Karen SheltonBaker and Pamela Beals. In each of their own special ways,

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