Mary Seacole: The Making of the Myth is the first book to challenge the popular misconceptions that surround Mary Seacole’s iconic status as a “pioneer nurse” and battlefield heroine, intended, by some, to replace Florence Nightingale in those roles. McDonald masterfully disentangles reality from the myths, both those that exaggerate Seacole’s work and ignore or denigrate Nightingale’s. Drawing on the considerable primary sources available on both women, including letters and journal notes by officers, medical doctors and other observers during the Crimean War, as well as Seacole’s own memoir, McDonald debunks claims that Seacole was the real heroine of the Crimean War and a pioneer of healthcare. Her book supports the recognition of Seacole for her life and work, but not as the decorated battlefield heroine as she is typically portrayed today.

Lynn McDonald is a professor of sociology at the University of Guelph, Ontario. She is a former president of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women, Canada’s largest women’s organization. As a Member of Parliament (the first “Ms” in the House of Commons), her Non-smokers Health Act made Parliamentary history as a private member’s bill, and made Canada a world leader in the “tobacco wars.” She is the author of The Early Origins of the Social Sciences (1993), and The Women Founders of the Social Sciences (1994) and editor of Women Theorists on Society and Politics (WLU Press, 1998), all of which have significant sections on Florence Nightingale.

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