[2] A culture that valorizes heroes insists on consistency, and the Blackwell sisters liked to see themselves as unwavering stewards of lofty ideas.

But Nimura, by digging into their deeds and their lives, finds those discrepancies and idiosyncrasies that yield a memorable portrait.

"The Doctors Blackwell" also opens up a sense of possibility — you don't always have to mean well on all fronts in order to do a lot of good.

[3]Nimura often sidesteps details of the Blackwells’ private lives and at times presents too much information, particularly about their clothing and residences.

Readers learn in sometimes fulsome detail about the limits of “heroic medicine” — the delivery of treatments that had demonstrable effects.