This book illuminates how crucial transformations in medical politics and organisation were linked to wider changes in society, economy and ideology. Paying particular attention to developments in medical welfare for physically handicapped children, wounded soldiers and injured workers, this extensively documented study challenges conventional accounts of medical specialisation; provides Anglo-American comparisons; and demonstrates the importance for medical modernity of changing interactions between philanthropy, war, labour, capital and the state.

This book examines the role of the Irish medical profession in the First World War. It assesses the extent of its involvement in the conflict while also interrogating the effect of global war on the development of Ireland’s domestic medical infrastructure, especially its hospital network. The study explores the factors that encouraged Ireland’s medical personnel to join the British Army medical services and uncovers how Irish hospital governors, in the face of increasing staff shortages and economic inflation, ensured that Ireland’s voluntary hospital network survived the war. It also considers how Ireland’s wartime doctors reintegrated into an Irish society that had experienced a profound shift in political opinion towards their involvement in the conflict and subsequently became embroiled in its own Civil War. In doing so, this book provides the first comprehensive study of the effect of the First World War on the medical profession in Ireland.

This electronic version has been made available under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) open access license. An electronic version of this book is also available under a Creative Commons (CC-BY-NC-ND) license, thanks to the support of the Wellcome Trust. Coalmining was a notoriously dangerous industry and many of its workers experienced injury and disease. However, the experiences of the many disabled people within Britain’s most dangerous industry have gone largely unrecognised by historians. This book looks at British coal through the lens of disability, using an interdisciplinary approach to examine the lives of disabled miners and their families. A diverse range of sources are used to examine the economic, social, political and cultural impact of disability in the coal industry, looking beyond formal coal company and union records to include autobiographies, novels and existing oral testimony. It argues that, far from being excluded entirely from British industry, disability and disabled people were central to its development. The book will appeal to students and academics interested in disability history, disability studies, social and cultural history and representations of disability in literature.

Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring The concept of peace has always attracted radical thought, action, and practices. It has been taken to mean merely an absence of overt violence or war, but in the contemporary era it is often used interchangeably with 'peacemaking', 'peacebuilding', 'conflict resolution', and 'statebuilding'. The modern concept of peace has therefore broadened from the mere absence of violence to something much more complicated. In this Very Short Introduction, Oliver Richmond explores the evolution of peace in practice and in theory, exploring our modern assumptions about peace and the various different interpretations of its applications. This second edition has been theoretically and empirically updated and introduces a new framework to understand the overall evolution of the international peace architecture. 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.

The First World War mangled faces, blew away limbs, and ruined nerves. Ten million dead, twenty million severe casualties, and eight million people with permanent disabilities - modern war inflicted pain and suffering with unsparing, mechanical efficiency. However, such horror was not the entire story. People also rebuilt their lives, their communities, and their bodies. From the ashes of war rose beauty, eroticism, and the promise of utopia. Ana Carden-Coyne investigates the cultures of resilience and the institutions of reconstruction in Britain, Australia, and the United States. Immersed in efforts to heal the consequences of violence and triumph over adversity, reconstruction inspired politicians, professionals, and individuals to transform themselves and their societies. Bodies were not to remain locked away as tortured memories. Instead, they became the subjects of outspoken debate, the objects of rehabilitation, and commodities of desire in global industries. Governments, physicians, beauty and body therapists, monument designers and visual artists looked to classicism and modernism as the tools for rebuilding civilization and its citizens. What better response to loss of life, limb, and mind than a body reconstructed?

Medicine and Victory is the first comprehensive account of British military medicine in the Second World War since the publication of the official history in the early 1950s. Drawing on a wide range of official and non-official sources, the book examines medical work in all the main theatres of the war, from the front line to the base hospital. All aspects of medical work are covered, including the prevention of disease, and the disposal and treatment of casualties.Harrison argues that the medical services played a major role in the Allied victory enabling the British Army to keep a higher proportion of troops in the field than its opponents. Assuming no previous knowledge of either medical or military history, Medicine and Victory provides an accessible introduction to a vitally important, yet too often neglected aspect of the Second World War.

An unusual history of doctors - both male and female - trained in Britain in the last quarter of the nineteenth century.