DENNIS BROE notes what happens to content when the streaming giants incorporate AI and deregulation into their economic models
Latest editorial
How black nurses beat TB
MARJORIE MAYO recommends a remarkable book that restores another of history’s racially biased omissions
black angels
New releases from The Tenementals, Nik Bartsch’s Ronin, and Kuunatic
SCOTT ALSWORTH hears the call to burn down and rebuild the video game industry from the bottom up
The Chinese language only introduced a feminine pronoun in the 1920s. Now, it might adopt a gender-inclusive one, suggests JANET DAVEY
ALEX HALL is intrigued by a detailed history of Gaza that demonstrates its historic resilience and changing economy
RON JACOBS welcomes the long overdue translation of an epic work that chronicles resistance to fascism during WWII
MAYER WAKEFIELD is chilled by the co-dependency of two lost souls as portrayed by German communist playwright Franz Xaver Kroetz
The Black Angels: The untold story of the nurses who helped cure tuberculosis
Maria Smilios, Virago, £12.99
THE BLACK ANGELS provides “an invaluable restoration of another of history’s racially biased omissions”, as the book’s front cover explains.
Black nurses faced the challenges of working with tuberculosis (TB) patients before there were effective cures, challenges that were compounded by their experiences of racial discrimination in the community as well as in the workplace. This is the remarkable story of their courage and determination, in the face of these challenges.
Caring for TB patients was highly dangerous at the time that the book opens, in 1929, when TB was a highly infectious and effectively incurable disease. As a result, white nurses were leaving Sea View, the Staten Island hospital (off New York City) where so many TB patients were being treated. So, black nurses from the Southern states of the US were being recruited in their place.
More from this author
While the group known as the Colourists certainly reinvigorated Scottish painting, a new show is a welcome chance to reassess them, writes ANGUS REID
ANGUS REID recommends an exquisite drama about the disturbing impact of the one child policy in contemporary China
The phrase “cruel to be kind” comes from Hamlet, but Shakespeare’s Prince didn’t go in for kidnap, explosive punches, and cigarette deprivation. Tam is different.
ANGUS REID deconstructs a popular contemporary novel aimed at a ‘queer’ young adult readership
