Fifteen years ago the AIDS epidemic did not exist on the public agenda. In just over a decade the public and official response to the disease has resulted in the development of a whole network of organizations devoted to the study, containment, and practical treatment of AIDS. In this fascinating and scholarly account, Virginia Berridge analyses a remarkable period in contemporary British history, and exposes the reaction of the British public and British political and medical elites to one of the most challenging issues of this century.

Fifteen years ago the AIDS epidemic did not exist on the public agenda. In just over a decade the public and official response to the disease has resulted in the development of a whole network of organizations devoted to the study, containment, and practical treatment of AIDS. In this fascinating and scholarly account, Virginia Berridge analyses a remarkable period in contemporary British history, and exposes the reaction of the British public and British political and medical elites to one of the most challenging issues of this century.

The post war history of public health and the role of smoking within that history epitomises the tensions which surround taking health to the public. Public health history has largely concentrated on the nineteenth century sanitary period or on the years before the Second World War, often focussing on the environmental advances, or on the professional and occupational history of public health as an activity. This book has a different focus: it deals with the change in the outlook of public health post war. From a focus on services, vaccination, and dealing with health issues at the local...

This collection opens up the post war history of public health to sustained research based, historical scrutiny. It examines the development of a new view of 'the health of the public' and the influences that shaped it in the post war years.

A collection of essays on the 'pre-history' of the impact of AIDS, and its subsequent history.

British health policy has undergone radical change in the postwar period and Virginia Berridge provides here a concise and accessible survey of these changes since 1939. While the rise, and recent decline, of the NHS is examined in detail, this book also looks at the changes in the role of doctors and associated medical professions, and the recent emphasis on "health promotion" and "primary care." Also considered are the role that lay people, especially women, play in providing health care, and the transition of the individual from "patient" to "consumer."

Health inequalities have re-emerged as a major issue in the 21st century. Yet the past history of this subject has been little understood. What causes health inequalities? How can they be tackled? This work explores how health inequalities have been examined in the past, and the policy record in treating them. The focus is on how health inequality has been dealt with since the founding of the National Health Service in 1948. Despite the egalitarian aspirations of its founders, the NHS seems to have had little effect on levels of health inequality. One key effort to understand why was the 1980...

A unique exploration of the changing ideas about the place of voluntarism and health care within society in Britain since the 1960s. By considering the work of voluntary organisations with illegal drug users, the authors provide a lens through which wider developments in the relationship between the state and civil society are examined.

The environment is currently a matter of international public and academic concern, but is often considered separately from health issues. This book brings together work from environmental and health historians to conceptualise the connection between environment and health at different times and in different geographical locations.

The contributors to this volume chart, and provide an analysis of, the development of a new view of 'the health of the public' and the influences which shaped it in the 20th century, in particular in the post-World War II years.