Mobilizing mercy : a history of the Canadian Red Cross / Sarah Glassford.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Glassford, Sarah, author.

Series:

McGill-Queen's/Associated Medical Services Studies in the History of Medicine, Health, and Society ; 45

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Canadian Red Cross Society.

Voluntary health agencies--Case studies.

Voluntary health agencies.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (409 pages) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

Montreal, [Quebec Province] : McGill-Queen's University Press, 2017.

Summary:

For more than a century the Canadian Red Cross Society has provided help and comfort to vulnerable people at home and abroad. In the first detailed national history of the organization, Sarah Glassford reveals how the European-born Red Cross movement came to Canada and took root, and why it flourished. From its origins in battlefield medicine to the creation of Canada’s first nationwide free blood transfusion service during the Cold War, Mobilizing Mercy charts crucial organizational changes, the influence of key leaders, and the impact of social, cultural, political, economic, and international trends over time. Glassford shows that the key to the Red Cross's longevity lies in its ability to reinvent itself by tapping into the concerns and ambitions of diverse groups including militia doctors, government officials, middle-class women, and schoolchildren. Through periods of war and peace, the Canadian Red Cross pioneered new services and filled gaps in government aid to become a ubiquitous agency on the wartime home front, a major domestic public health organization, and a respected provider of international humanitarian aid. Opening a window onto the shifting relationship between voluntary organizations and the state, Mobilizing Mercy is a compelling portrait of a major humanitarian organization, its people, and its ever-evolving place in Canadian society.For more than a century the Canadian Red Cross Society has provided help and comfort to vulnerable people at home and abroad. In the first detailed national history of the organization, Sarah Glassford reveals how the European-born Red Cross movement came to Canada and took root, and why it flourished. From its origins in battlefield medicine to the creation of Canada’s first nationwide free blood transfusion service during the Cold War, Mobilizing Mercy charts crucial organizational changes, the influence of key leaders, and the impact of social, cultural, political, economic, and international trends over time. Glassford shows that the key to the Red Cross's longevity lies in its ability to reinvent itself by tapping into the concerns and ambitions of diverse groups including militia doctors, government officials, middle-class women, and schoolchildren. Through periods of war and peace, the Canadian Red Cross pioneered new services and filled gaps in government aid to become a ubiquitous agency on the wartime home front, a major domestic public health organization, and a respected provider of international humanitarian aid. Opening a window onto the shifting relationship between voluntary organizations and the state, Mobilizing Mercy is a compelling portrait of a major humanitarian organization, its people, and its ever-evolving place in Canadian society.

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Introduction

Men, Medicine, and Militia, 1885–1896

To South Africa and Back, 1896–1914

A Society Transformed by War, 1914–1918

The Battlefields of Peace, 1919–1939

Golden Age or Troubled Times? 1939–1945

Mid-Century Modern Red Cross, 1946–1970

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (ebrary, viewed April 4, 2017).

ISBN:

9780773548329

0773548327

9780773548312

0773548319

OCLC:

979161363