Thank you for article on Edith Cavell by Terri Arthur

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Dear Editor:

Thank you for Terri Arthur's incredible work on Edith Cavell (February 2006, 32:1). Terri's treatment of the 19th century heroine Edith Cavell shares the focus of other revisionist historians such as Susan Reverby (Ordered to Care: The Dilemma of American Nursing 1850–1945), James Green (Taking History to Heart: The Power of the Past in Building Social Movements), Howard Zinn (A People's History of the United States), and feminist historian Gerda Lerner (Why History Matters) in that it pays homage to a more inclusive and representative history, rather than reflecting the limited interests of a very small number of self-promoting social or professional elites (e.g., politicians, presidents, and even, the literate, aristocratic Florence Nightingale) or social power institutions.

Arthur's moving work offered more accuracy and, therefore, improved historical clarity by providing essential context from which to analyze specific historical events and, certainly, modern nursing's history. It is impressive to see the work of practicing staff nurses represented in professional nursing journals, particularly one that, I suspect, required such exhaustive labor, personal expense, dedication, and detailed research as an historical exploration such as Arthur's.

Thank you JEN.