Harriet Martineau's 1859 England and Her Soldiers is a seminal work that leverages Florence Nightingale's innovative charts to show the high number of soldiers who died from disease, rather than in battle, during the Crimean War. Martineau, a well-known writer and social reform advocate, worked with Nightingale, famous for improving cleanliness in military hospitals, to bring attention to the poor conditions soldiers faced. This book used Nightingale's "polar area diagrams," which were groundbreaking data visualization tools, to effectively show these issues to a wider audience.
The book represents a significant joint effort between Martineau and Nightingale, two of the most influential Englishwomen of the 19th century, who shared a dedication to using empirical evidence to push for change. Martineau approached Nightingale in 1858 to help use her statistical findings to argue for better soldier care. Nightingale agreed, providing her confidential report and diagrams for Martineau's book, and she continued to help in the editorial phase to ensure the data was presented accurately and compellingly. This collaboration combined Martineau's writing skills with Nightingale's analytical abilities.
R.J. Andrews write of England and Her Soldiers (pages 108-9):
The third and final Nightingale work that presented the new polar area diagrams was a little red book by Harriet Martineau. Martineau was a successful writer who broke out in the 1830s with narrative tutorials about political economy. She went on to write in defense of the Poor Laws and toured America in support of the abolition of slavery. Her London circle included Thomas Malthus, John Stuart Mill, and Charles Darwin...
...England and Her Soldiers, marks the first time that the colorful polar area diagram became detached from its two siblings. It stands on its own as a foldout on heavy paper facing the title page of the book. The two black-and-white charts are at the end of the book on cheaper stock. A June 1859 review in the Illustrated London News observed that "the amount of military mortality, totally independent of death by the sword,... is perfectly startling."
Provenance
Inscribed by Martineau to her sister-in-law Ellen Higginson, wife of her brother, the famous Unitarian religious philosopher James Martineau.
Harriet Martineau (1802-1876) was a pioneering English social theorist, writer, and political activist whose work and life resonate powerfully with contemporary issues of social justice, gender equality, and the dissemination of knowledge. Born in Norwich, England, into a family of Huguenot descent, Martineau overcame the challenges of being deaf and a woman in a male-dominated society to become one of the most influential intellectuals of the Victorian era.
Martineau's extensive body of work covered sociology, political economy, and feminist theory, making her one of the first social scientists to approach the study of society in an organized manner. Her writing not only popularized the economic theories of Adam Smith and the Utilitarians but also critiqued them from a moral and social perspective, advocating for a society that values the well-being of all its members, regardless of class or gender.
An ardent advocate for women's rights, Martineau was ahead of her time in arguing for economic independence and educational opportunities for women. She was a testament to what women could achieve, having supported herself entirely through her writing—a rare feat for women in the 19th century.
Martineau's political views were progressive, advocating for abolition, labor rights, and social reform. She was deeply committed to the abolitionist movement, and her book "Society in America" (1837) includes critical observations on the social and economic conditions of the United States, with a particular focus on the institution of slavery and the plight of women.
Her work in sociology, particularly her methodological approach to the study of social life through direct observation and empirical research, laid the groundwork for future sociologists.
Martineau was a close friend and collaborator with Florence Nightingale, namely on the 1859 book England and Her Soldiers.