The History of Public Health and the Modern State

Abstract

Since George Rosen’s comprehensive History of Public Health, first published in 1956, there has been no internationally comparative survey of the subject. Over the past three decades or so, however, research in this field has expanded rapidly, especially with regard to the history of disease and social order and public health politics and the state. Most of these studies have been highly scholarly and specialised and often dealing with only one aspect of public health in any one national context. The essays here examine the road history of public health in different national contexts in order to provide a work of comparative reference that could be used as a teaching aid. The book focuses on whether the construction of a public health system is an inherent characteristic of the managerial function of modern political systems. Thus, each essay traces the steps leading to the growth of health government in various nations, examining the specific conflicts and contradictions which each incurred. As a result the volume highlights the need for further comparative analysis of public health systems as a highly fruitful topic for future study.

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