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This module introduces students to the history of public health. We analyse the development of public health in high-income countries in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with a focus on Britain, and the exportation of these ideas to low and middle-income countries. We also assess the development of responses to key public health problems, such as sexually transmitted infections.

The overall module aim is to enable students to employ historical perspectives in the critical evaluation of issues in public health and health services

Intended learning outcomes

Upon successful completion of the module, a student should be able to: 

• Locate developments in public health and health services within historical context, in high, middle and low-income countries. 
• Recognise the nature of historical debate and the contested status of historical claims. 
• Analyse original documents in order to assess a significant historical question. 
• Evaluate the historical dimensions of ongoing public health issues.

Session Content

The module is expected to cover the following topics: 

• Responses to infectious diseases, with case studies such as cholera, smallpox and malaria. 
• Urban sanitary reform and its relationship with industrialisation and life expectancy. 
• The response of liberal democracies in the West to health challenges such as sexually transmitted diseases. 
• The development of 20th-century welfare states in which health services became central political matters. 
• Public health in the twentieth century and the international rise of health promotion.
• The development of ‘tropical medicine’, its relation to colonialism, and the shift towards ‘global health’. 

Our focus is largely on Britain and the United States, with some close attention to public health and health systems in parts of the world that were colonised by European powers.

Mode of delivery

This module is delivered predominantly face-to-face. Where specific teaching methods (lectures, seminars, discussion groups) are noted in this module specification these will be delivered by predominantly face-to-face sessions. There will be a combination of live and interactive activities (synchronous learning) as well as self-directed study (asynchronous learning).

Assessment

The module is assessed by a 3,000-word essay chosen from a list of questions. The essay questions provided are based on the topics that will be covered in the module, and reading lists for these topics are provided on Moodle. More detailed reading lists are provided for the essays, containing both primary and secondary sources. 

The assessment maps onto the intended learning outcomes by: 

• Posing questions that require students to locate developments in public health and health services within historical context, in high, middle and low-income countries; 
• Encouraging students to describe and reflect on the nature of historical debate and the contested status of historical claims; 
• Rewarding students who analyse original documents in order to assess a significant historical question; 
• Offering students the opportunity to evaluate the historical dimensions of ongoing public health issues.

Credits

• CATS: 15
• ECTS: 7.5

Module specification

For full information regarding this module please see the module specification.