Contagious communities : medicine, migration, and the NHS in post-war Britain / Roberta Bivins.
Publisher: Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2015Copyright date: ©2015Edition: First editionDescription: xvi, 424 pages : illustrations ; 25 cmContent type: text Media type: unmediated Carrier type: volumeISBN: 9780198725282; 0198725280Subject(s): Great Britain. National Health Service | Medical care -- Great Britain -- History -- 20th century | Emigration and immigration -- Health aspects -- Great Britain | Race relations -- History | Great Britain. National Health Service | Emigration and Immigration -- history | History, 20th Century | State Medicine -- history | Prejudice -- ethnology | Minority Health -- history | Great Britain | Great Britain. National Health Service | Emigration and immigration -- Health aspects | Medical care | Race relations | Great Britain | 1900 - 1999Genre/Form: History.DDC classification: 305.9/06912/094109045 LOC classification: RA643.7.G7 | B58 2015JV7625NLM classification: 2015 K-233 | WA 11 FA1Summary: It was only a coincidence that the NHS and the Empire Windrush (a ship carrying 492 migrants from Britain's West Indian colonies) arrived together. On 22 June 1948, as the ship's passengers disembarked, frantic preparations were already underway for 5 July, the Appointed Day when the nation's new National Health Service would first open its doors. The relationship between immigration and the NHS rapidly attained - and has enduringly retained - notable political and cultural significance. Both the Appointed Day and the post-war arrival of colonial and Commonwealth immigrants heralded transformative change. Together, they reshaped daily life in Britain and notions of 'Britishness' alike. Yet the reciprocal impacts of post-war immigration and medicine in post-war Britain have yet to be explored. Contagious Communities casts new light on a period which is beginning to attract significant historical interest. Roberta Bivins draws attention to the importance - but also the limitations - of medical knowledge, approaches, and professionals in mediating post-war British responses to race, ethnicity, and the emergence of new and distinctive ethnic communities. By presenting a wealth of newly available or previously ignored archival evidence, she interrogates and re-balances the political history of Britain's response to New Commonwealth immigration. Contagious Communities uses a set of linked case-studies to map the persistence of 'race' in British culture and medicine alike; the limits of belonging in a multi-ethnic welfare state; and the emergence of new and resolutely 'unimagined' communities of patients, researchers, clinicians, policy-makers, and citizens within the medical state and its global contact zones.| Item type | Current library | Class number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item reservations |
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Book-Circulating
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London Global Gateway Library Main shelves | RA643.7. G7B58 2015 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | Available | B013263 |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
It was only a coincidence that the NHS and the Empire Windrush (a ship carrying 492 migrants from Britain's West Indian colonies) arrived together. On 22 June 1948, as the ship's passengers disembarked, frantic preparations were already underway for 5 July, the Appointed Day when the nation's new National Health Service would first open its doors. The relationship between immigration and the NHS rapidly attained - and has enduringly retained - notable political and cultural significance. Both the Appointed Day and the post-war arrival of colonial and Commonwealth immigrants heralded transformative change. Together, they reshaped daily life in Britain and notions of 'Britishness' alike. Yet the reciprocal impacts of post-war immigration and medicine in post-war Britain have yet to be explored. Contagious Communities casts new light on a period which is beginning to attract significant historical interest. Roberta Bivins draws attention to the importance - but also the limitations - of medical knowledge, approaches, and professionals in mediating post-war British responses to race, ethnicity, and the emergence of new and distinctive ethnic communities. By presenting a wealth of newly available or previously ignored archival evidence, she interrogates and re-balances the political history of Britain's response to New Commonwealth immigration. Contagious Communities uses a set of linked case-studies to map the persistence of 'race' in British culture and medicine alike; the limits of belonging in a multi-ethnic welfare state; and the emergence of new and resolutely 'unimagined' communities of patients, researchers, clinicians, policy-makers, and citizens within the medical state and its global contact zones.