Book ID: CBB200868576

Sickness in the Workhouse: Poor Law Medical Care in Provincial England, 1834-1914 (2019)

unapi

Ritch, Alistair (Author)


University of Rochester Press


Publication Date: 2019
Physical Details: 312
Language: English

England's New Poor Law (1834) transformed medical care in ways that have long been overlooked, or denigrated, by historians. Sickness in the Workhouse challenges these assumptions through a close examination of two urban workhouses in the west midlands from the passage of the New Poor Law until the outbreak of World War I. By closely analyzing the day-to-day practice of workhouse doctors and nurses, author Alistair Ritch questions the idea that medical care was invariably of poor quality and brought little benefit to patients. Medical staff in the workhouses labored under severe restraints and grappled with the immense health issues facing their patients. Sickness in the Workhouse brings to life this hidden group of workhouse staff and highlights their significance within the local health economy. Among other things, as the author notes, workhouses needed to provide medical care for nonpaupers, such as institutional isolation facilities for those with infectious diseases. This groundbreaking book highlights these doctors and nurses in order to illuminate our understanding of this significant yet little understood area of poor law history.

...More
Reviewed By

Review Eli O. Anders (2021) Review of "Sickness in the Workhouse: Poor Law Medical Care in Provincial England, 1834-1914". Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences (pp. 359-360). unapi

Review James Hanley (2021) Review of "Sickness in the Workhouse: Poor Law Medical Care in Provincial England, 1834-1914". Canadian Bulletin of Medical History/Bulletin Canadienne d'Histoire de la Medecine (pp. 209-212). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB200868576/

Similar Citations

Book Claire Hilton; (2017)
Improving Psychiatric Care for Older People: Barbara Robb’s Campaign 1965-1975 (/isis/citation/CBB657852750/)

Article Helen Vandenberg; Wanda Martin; Marie Dietrich Leurer; Andrea Ens; (2021)
The History of Saskatchewan’s Public Health Association Policy Initiatives, 1954–86: A Regional Comparison for Preventative Health Policy Work in Canada (/isis/citation/CBB049962933/)

Book Armus, Diego; (2011)
The Ailing City: Health, Tuberculosis, and Culture in Buenos Aires, 1870--1950 (/isis/citation/CBB001250142/)

Article Hanley, James G.; (2006)
Parliament, Physicians, and Nuisances: The Demedicalization of Nuisance Law, 1831--1855 (/isis/citation/CBB000830234/)

Book Jacob Steere-Williams; (2020)
The Filth Disease: Typhoid Fever and the Practices of Epidemiology in Victorian England (/isis/citation/CBB965282260/)

Book Nigel Richardson; (2008)
Typhoid in Uppingham: Analysis of a Victorian Town and School in Crisis, 1875–1877 (/isis/citation/CBB407718769/)

Book Willrich, Michael; (2011)
Pox: An American History (/isis/citation/CBB001212485/)

Article Fritz Handerer; Peter Kinderman; Carsten Timmermann; Sara J Tai; (2021)
How did mental health become so biomedical? The progressive erosion of social determinants in historical psychiatric admission registers (/isis/citation/CBB109132105/)

Article Jones, Margaret; (2013)
A “Textbook Pattern”? Malaria Control and Eradication in Jamaica, 1910--65 (/isis/citation/CBB001320597/)

Article Cécile Vanderpelen-Diagre; Valérie Leclercq; (2022)
Tendre le bras à la nation (/isis/citation/CBB641054038/)

Article Desrosiers, Georges; Gaumer, Benoît; (2006)
Les debuts de l'éducation sanitaire au Québec: 1880--1901 (/isis/citation/CBB000930219/)

Article Alessandra Maria Balestra; (2018)
The industry of butter made with pasteurised cream as a defence against Tuberculosis transmission (/isis/citation/CBB096991992/)

Article Sarah Rafferty; Matthew R. Smallman-Raynor; Andrew D. Cliff; (2018)
Variola minor in England and Wales: The geographical course of a smallpox epidemic and the impediments to effective disease control, 1920–1935 (/isis/citation/CBB204012556/)

Authors & Contributors
Tai, Sara J.
Vandenberg, Helen
Martin, Wanda
Handerer, Fritz
Leclercq, Valérie
Kinderman, Peter
Concepts
Public health
Medicine and government
Prevention and control of disease
Health policy
Medicine
Vaccines; vaccination
Time Periods
19th century
20th century, early
20th century, late
20th century
Places
England
Great Britain
Saskatchewan (Canada)
Buenos Aires (Argentina)
Jamaica (Caribbean)
Québec (Canada)
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment