AIDS in the UK: The Making of Policy, 1981-1994

Fifteen years ago the AIDS epidemic did not exist on the public agenda. In just over a decade the public and official response to the disease has resulted in the development of a whole network of organizations devoted to the study, containment, and practical treatment of AIDS. In this fascinating and scholarly account, Virginia Berridge analyses a remarkable period in contemporary British history, and exposes the reaction of the British public and British political and medical elites to one of the most challenging issues of this century.

History

Berridge, Virginia

Europe

Oxford University Press

The post war history of public health and the role of smoking within that history epitomises the tensions which surround taking health to the public. Public health history has largely concentrated on the nineteenth century sanitary period or on the years before the Second World War, often focussing on the environmental advances, or on the professional and occupational history of public health as an activity. This book has a different focus: it deals with the change in the outlook of public health post war. From a focus on services, vaccination, and dealing with health issues at the local level, public health had developed new discourse. Centring on chronic disease, it became concerned with the concept of "risk" and targeted individual behaviour. The mass media and centralised campaigning directed at the whole population replaced local campaigns, and politicians changed their mind about speaking directly to the public on health matters. Their early worries about the 'nanny state' gave place to a desire to inculcate new norms of behaviour, and it was debated how change was to be achieved.Identifying debates between those believing in "systematic gradualism" and those who advocated a more coercive approach, Virginia Berridge uses smoking as a model. Such debates brought into play tensions over the relationships between public health and industrial interests. Health campaigning by new style pressure groups like ASH, which were part state funded, was an important motive force behind the change. In the 1980s and 1990s, public health changed again. Passive smoking and HIV/AIDS brought environmental concerns back into public health, which had disappeared after the 1950s. The "rise of addiction" for smoking demonstrated the power of pharmaceutical interests to define a new "pharmaceutical public health" in which treatment and "magic bullets" were also tactics for prevention. In the early 21st century, public health was play to complex tensions and conflicting impetuses. This book shows that those tensions were nothing new and outlines their development over the last half century.

Marketing Health: Smoking and the Discourse of Public Health in Britain, 1945-2000

Binge drinking, particularly in young women, has become big news. Debates about the regulation and classification of cannabis are frequently voiced. Cigarette smoking is banned in public places, and emotive public health campaigns seek to reduce its use still further. Yet there are many sides to each of these arguments, and if we look back over the last 150 years, we see massive variety in the ways societies and states have related to drugs, drink, and tobacco. Virginia Berridge offers a much-needed long view, which helps illuminate our current concerns, and shows how three separate stories overlap and inter-connect. She takes us to the socially-acceptable opium dens of Dickens's London; to the absinthe craze of fin-de-siecle Paris. She asks whether prohibition in America proved to be helpful or harmful. She looks at how tobacco was promoted as a medicinal benefit. She considers the medical use of cannabis, LSD, and other drugs. And through all this, she traces the changes in scientific and medical knowledge. This is a complex story of whether, and how, the state should intervene. How do we balance the interests of personal freedom, public well-being, healthcare, and the economy? Is substance abuse a social issue, or a medical one? As governments, health services, and the World Health Organisation grapple with these issues, the wisdom and experience of history can help map the way forward.

Demons: Our changing attitudes to alcohol, tobacco, and drugs

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Addiction & Recovery

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 Organization promote public health policies, and regional organizations 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 organizations. 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.

Public Health: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

Medical Books

Administration & Medicine Economics

British health policy has undergone radical change in the postwar period and Virginia Berridge provides here a concise and accessible survey of these changes since 1939. While the rise, and recent decline, of the NHS is examined in detail, this book also looks at the changes in the role of doctors and associated medical professions, and the recent emphasis on "health promotion" and "primary care." Also considered are the role that lay people, especially women, play in providing health care, and the transition of the individual from "patient" to "consumer."

Health and Society in Britain since 1939 (New Studies in Economic and Social History, Series Number 38)

Business & Money

Economics

Cambridge University Press

At the beginning of the 19th century, opium was widely used as an everyday remedy for common ailments. By the 1920s, it was classified as a dangerous drug. In an examination of the social context of drug taking in Victorian England, the book explains this decisive change in attitude. This revised edition examines how and why restrictive policies were put in place in the early decades of the 20th century and reveals fresh perspectives on the motivations which survive in the formation of current drug policies.

Opium and the People - Revised Edition: Opiate Use and Policy in 19th and Early 20th Century Britain (Revised Edition)

Free Association Books

At the beginning of the 19th century, opium was widely used as an everyday remedy for common ailments. By the 1920s, it was classified as a "dangerous drug". In an examination of the social context of drug taking in Victorian England, the book explains this decisive change in attitude. This revised edition examines how and why restrictive policies were put in place in the early decades of the 20th century and reveals fresh perspectives on the motivations which survive in the formation of current drug policies.

Opium and the People: Opiate Use and Policy in 19th and Early 20th Century Britain

World

Free Assn Books

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Books by Berridge, Virginia

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Berridge, Virginia. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

AIDS in the UK: The Making of Policy, 1981-1994

AIDS in the UK: The Making of Policy, 1981-1994

Marketing Health: Smoking and the Discourse of Public Health in Britain, 1945-2000

Demons: Our changing attitudes to alcohol, tobacco, and drugs

Public Health: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

Health and Society in Britain since 1939 (New Studies in Economic and Social History, Series Number 38)

Health and Society in Britain since 1939 (New Studies in Economic and Social History, Series Number 38)

Opium and the People - Revised Edition: Opiate Use and Policy in 19th and Early 20th Century Britain (Revised Edition)

Opium and the People: Opiate Use and Policy in 19th and Early 20th Century Britain