Posters, Protests, and Prescriptions: Cultural Histories of the National Health Service in Britain

(Hardback)

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Description

This book provides new analysis of Britains National Health Service as a cultural, not only a political, phenomenon.

The National Health Service has provided Britains healthcare since 1948. This institution has been the subject of terse political debate since its inception and has had a number of complex reforms and restructures. Yet, the meanings of the NHS are not only or even primarily lived out in politics. Nearly every Briton comes into contact with the NHS from cradle to grave and this system of healthcare shapes society, culture and everyday life. This book charts these multiple meanings, looking at the NHS as a site of work, activism and consumerism, as a space and in cultural representations. Looking in these ways, the book shows how and why the NHS has become a symbol of Britishness and object of fierce protectiveness, even love, today.

Reviews

'This is the first book to address the NHS using a cultural studies framework. It produces rich and complex evidence of change over time across popular attachments and social meanings and attitudes, while demonstrating the value of new approaches to visual and material sources.'
Stephanie Snow, Professor of Health, History and Policy, University of Manchester

Author Bio

Jennifer Crane is lecturer in health geographies at the School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol and worked as a Public Engagement Research Fellow on the Cultural History of the NHS project at the University of Warwick

Jane Hand worked as a Research Fellow on the Cultural History of the NHS project at the University of Warwick