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Print Price: $13.50

Format:
Paperback
144 pp.
10 b/w images, 111 mm x 174 mm

ISBN-13:
9780199688463

Publication date:
August 2016

Imprint: OUP UK


Public Health

A Very Short Introduction

Virginia Berridge

Series : Very Short Introductions

Public health is a term much used in the media, by health professionals, and by activists. At the national or the local level there are ministries or departments of public health, whilst international agencies such as the World Health Organisation promote public health policies, and regional organisations such as the European Union have public health funding and policies. But what do we mean when we speak about "public health"?

In this Very Short Introduction Virginia Berridge explores the areas which fall under the remit of public health, and explains how the individual histories of different countries have come to cause great differences in the perception of the role and responsibilities of public health organisations. Thus, in the United States litigation on public health issues is common, but state involvement is less, while some Scandinavian countries have a tradition of state involvement or even state ownership of industries such as alcohol in connection with public health. In its narrowest sense, public health can refer to the health of a population, the longevity of individual members, and their freedom from disease, but it can also be anticipatory, geared to the prevention of illness, rather than simply the provision of care and treatment. In the way public health deals with healthy as well as sick people it is therefore a separate concept from health services, which deal with the sick population. Drawing on a wide range of international examples, Berridge demonstrates the central role of history to understanding the amorphous nature of public health today.

ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Readership : General readers and students of history, particularly history of science and history of medicine.

1. What is public health?
2. Current challenges
3. The origins of public health into the 1700s
4. Sanitation to education 1800-1900s
5. The rise of lifestyle 1900-1980s
6. Tropical and international public health
7. Present and future in the light of history
References
Further Reading

There are no Instructor/Student Resources available at this time.

Virginia Berridge is Professor of History and Director of the Centre for History in Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London. She has edited or co-edited 12 books and is the sole author of 7 books including Marketing Health. Smoking and the Discourse of Public Health in Britain,1945-2000 (OUP, 2007) and Demons (OUP, 2013). She has written overviews of health and medicine for the Cambridge Social History of Britain and of contemporary history for the Oxford Handbook of the History of Medicine. She has been Chair of the Society for the Social History of Medicine and President of the European Association for the History of Medicine and Health.

Special Features

  • Places public health in its historical context, and analyses how the changing face of public health is essential to understanding its contemporary concerns.
  • Discusses the demographic, institutional, scientific, political, and professional influences, which have shaped views about the health of the public.
  • Considers the differences in approaches to public health across the globe, from biosecurity and the defence of the nation against terrorist attack in the US, to health promoting, and 'well-being' aspects of health in the UK.
  • Part of the Very Short Introductions series - over seven million copies sold worldwide.