Clara Barton and Her Victory Over Fear

By Robert M. Quackenbush

Describes the childhood fears that made even simple requests difficult for Clara Barton, and relates how she overcame such fears in order to help on the battlefields of the Civil War and establish the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671865986
• ISBN13: 9780671865986
• Release Date: June 1995
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 36 Pages
• Weight: 0.66 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 7.2" x 9.4"
• Age Range: 9 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 4 to 7

Customer Reviews

An excellent juvenile biography of Clara Barton

"Clara Barton and Her Victory Over Fear" is an excellent juvenile biography of the woman who is remembered for serving as a battlefield nurse during the Civil War and honored for founding the American Red Cross. What makes Robert Quackenbush's biography so superb is the way he tells Barton's story as a series of key episodes that reflect her strong character. He focuses on a line from her memories where she wrote, "In the earliest years of my life, I remember nothing but fear." Quackenbush develops that sense of fear in a series of stories about how she reacted to seeing a snake, the butchering of an ox, and a violent thunderstorm. But then the shy little girl begins to accomplish things. While she would never assert herself for herself, young Clara was perfectly fearless when she acted for others.What young readers will find fascinating is that before the Civil War that would make her famous as "the Angel of the Battlefield," Clara Barton led an extraordinary life for a young woman. As a teacher she opened the first public school in Hightown, New Jersey when she found out that the children of poor people who could not afford to pay teachers were not being educated. The school was so successful that a brand new public school had to be built, at which point the school board appointed a young man to be principal and demoted Clara to "female assistant" at half the salary. Barton resigned and moved to Washington, D.C. to live with her sister. There she became the first women ever to work in the capital at a government office. Even more amazing, as a clerk at the Bureau of United States Patents she was paid the same salary that male clerk were earning. Of course it was during the Civil War that Barton first became famous. During the American Civil War two soldiers died of disease for every one killed in battle. Thousands died from scurvy, typhoid, diphtheria, and pneumonia. Boys from farms, crowded together with men from the cities for the fist time in their young lives proved to be especially susceptible to the onslaught of diseases. On both sides of the conflict medical care was, at best, primitive. Barton started out collecting and distributing brandy, tobacco, lemons, soaps, sewing kits, and homemade jellies to the troops from her native Massachusetts. In the bloody aftermath of the First Battle of Bull Run Barton realized that much more was needed and she declared her place was "anywhere between the bullet and the battlefield." Quackenbush not only covers Barton's efforts during the Civil War, but afterwards when she established a bureau to trace missing soldiers. Barton traveled to Europe where she worked as a nurse during the Franco-Prussian War as part of the International Red Cross. Then she returned to the United States and founded the American Red Cross and worked to establish the reputation that it enjoys to this day. Even when she retired, she went on to create the National First Aid Society to assist accident victims. A