The social history of medicine has become recognized as a major field of historical enquiry. Aspects of health, disease, and medical care now attract the attention not only of social historians but also of researchers in a broad spectrum of historical and social science disciplines. The Society for the Social History of Medicine, founded in 1969, is an interdisciplinary body, based in Great Britain but international in membership. It exists to forward a wide-ranging view of the history of medicine, concerned equally with biological aspects of normal life, experience of and attitudes to illness, medical thought and treatment, and systems of medical care. Although frequently bearing on current issues, this interpretation of the subject makes primary reference to historical context and contemporary priorities. The intention is not to promote a sub-specialism but to conduct research according to the standards and intelligibility required of history in general.
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By Susan McGann, Barbara Mortimer
December 08, 2011
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 ...
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By Roger Davidson, Lesley A. Hall
December 08, 2011
This volume brings together for the first time 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 ...
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By David Killingray, Howard Phillips
December 08, 2011
The Spanish Influenza pandemic of 1918-19 was the worst pandemic of modern times, claiming over 30 million lives in less than six months. In the hardest hit societies, everything else was put aside in a bid to cope with its ravages. It left millions orphaned and medical science desperate to find ...
By Rosemary Elliot
November 25, 2011
The changing face of the female smoker, from the lady smokers of the late nineteenth century to the lone mother of the late twentieth century, suggests that the history of smoking among women is not just about the assimilation of women into a male practice, but about the changing, and varied, ...
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By Juanita De Barros, Steven Palmer, David Wright
November 16, 2010
Health and medicine in colonial environments is one of the newest areas in the history of medicine, but one in which the Caribbean is conspicuously absent. Yet the complex and fascinating history of the Caribbean, borne of the ways European colonialism combined with slavery, indentureship, migrant ...
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By Martin Gorsky, Sally Sheard
October 03, 2006
Financing Medicine brings together a collection of essays dealing with the financing of medical care in Britain since the mid-eighteenth century, with a view to addressing two major issues: Why did the funding of the British health system develop in the way it did? What were the ...
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By Thomas Schlich, Ulrich Tröhler
August 02, 2004
The risks involved in introducing new drugs and devices are amongst the most discussed issues of modern medicine. Presenting a new way of thinking about these issues, this volume considers risk and medical innovation from a social historical perspective, and studies specific cases of medical ...
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By Bridie Andrews, Mary P. Sutphen
September 02, 2003
Over the last century, identity as an avenue of inquiry has become both an academic growth industry and a problematic category of historical analysis. This volume shows how the study of medicine can provide new insights into colonial identity, and the possibility of accommodating multiple ...
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By Andrew Cunningham, Ole Peter Grell
July 23, 1997
The problem of the poor grew in the early modern period as populations rose dramatically and created many extra pressures on the state. In Northern Europe, cities were going through a period of rapid growth and central and local administrations saw considerable expansion. This volume provides an ...
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By Lara Marks, Michael Worboys
November 01, 2002
How has twentieth-century medicine dealt with immigrants and minorities? The contributors to Migrants, Minorities and Health have studied a number of different types of migrant and minority groups from different societies around the world in order to examine the complex relations between health ...
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By Colin Jones, Roy Porter
May 29, 1998
Though Foucault is now widely taught in universities, his writings are notoriously difficult. Reassessing Foucault critically examines the implications of his work for students and researchers in a wide range of areas in the social and human sciences. Focusing on the social history of medicine, ...