This guide to work in the social and cultural history of insanity, provides a comprehensive summary of the debates on the growth of institutional care during the 19th and 20th centuries. Looking at the English model in terms of the significance of ethnicity, race and gender as well as political and cultural factors, the book also features studies in Wales, Scotland, Ireland, India and South Africa, and analyses the history of colonial medicine more generally.

The essays in this collection originate from the research symposium organized by the Society for the Social History of Medicine at the University of Southampton in 1998. They are concerned with the interaction between different medical approaches during the last two centuries. A variety of methodological approaches are used to challenge narrowly conceived boundaries between disciplines and methodologies.

This volume brings together a series of studies on the social history of venereal disease in modern Europe and its former colonies. It explores, from a comparative perspective, the responses of legal, medical and political authorities to the Great Scourge. In particular, how such responses reflected and shaped social attitudes towards sexuality and social relationships of class, gender, generation and race.

The Spanish Flu pandemic killed 30-50 million people in Europe, North America, Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and is lodged in the popular memory of that generation. The chapters in this book have been structured around five main themes to explore the medical and societal ramifications of this disease: the virology of the pandemic, medical responses, official responses, the demographic impact and the long-term effects of the pandemic. The origins of the virus, the global spread, impact and consequences of the pandemic are all explored in detail.

This volume offers a comprehensive study of the interaction of food, politics and science over the last 100 years. Case studies, from pasteurization in Britain to the Ecoli outbreak offer material for those interested in science policy and the role of expertise in modern political culture.

In the age of HIV, antibiotic-resistant bacteria, the Ebola Virus and BSE, metaphors and experience of contagion are a central concern of government, biomedicine and popular culture. Contagion explores cultural responses of infectious diseases and their biomedical management over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It also investigates the use of 'contagion' as a concept in postmodern reconceptualisations of embodied subjectivity. The essays are written from within the fields of cultural studies, biomedical history and critical sociology. The contributors examine the geographies, policies...

This collection of essays reflects the current interdisciplinary and international nature of the history of nursing scholarship.

Covering a range from the eighteenth to the twentieth century, this book draws on research from eleven different countries to address:

• the issues of professionalism within nursing
• the social and ethical issues which are woven into the relationship between the nurse/midwife and her patient/client
• the trans-cultural dimensions nurses create when they move from one culture to another and the recent developments in...

What have been the roles of charities and the state in supporting medical provision? These are issues of major relevance, as the assumptions and practices of the welfare state are increasingly thrown into doubt. This title offers a broad perspective on the relationship between charity and medicine in Western Europe, up to the advent of welfare states in the 20th century. Through detailed case studies, the authors highlight significant differences between Britain, France, Italy and Germany, and offer a critical vocabulary for grasping the issues raised. This volume reflects recent developments...