NHS 75th Anniversary Reading List - Manchester University Press

This year marks a milestone in the history of healthcare in the United Kingdom—the 75th anniversary of the National Health Service (NHS).

As we celebrate this achievement, it is crucial to reflect on the journey that led to the creation of this iconic institution and the impact it has had on the lives of millions.

To commemorate the anniversary, we have created a reading list, delving deep into the rich history of the NHS. These titles offer insights and shed light on the challenges faced, the triumphs achieved, and the enduring legacy of the pioneering healthcare system.

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Migrant architects of the NHS

Julian Simpson

Migrant Architects is the first book to assess the impact of the migration of doctors from the Indian subcontinent on postwar development of British general practice and by extension the ways in which they influenced the development of the NHS.

Posters, protests, and prescriptions

Jennifer Crane, Jane Hand

The National Health Service determines how Britons receive healthcare. It is a source of national pride, a workplace and a symbol. This book explores how the cultural meanings of the NHS developed and changed since its foundation in 1948, shaped by activism, labour, consumerism, space and representation.

Organising care around patients

Naomi Chambers, Jeremy Taylor

This book draws on multiple real life experiences to make a compelling case for how the NHS can organise care better around the needs of patients.

Mutualism and health care

Martin Gorsky, John Mohan, Tim Willis

Mutualism and health care presents the first comprehensive account of the establishment and operation of hospital contributory schemes and the organisation of voluntary hospitals in Britain before the creation of the NHS.

Payment and philanthropy in British healthcare, 1918-48

George Campbell Gosling

Examines how commercial medicine operated before the foundation of the NHS, and how this could be compatible with a system based on charity. It challenges the assumptions of historians, politicians and the public.

Trust in the system

Adam Hedgecoe

An ethnographic exploration of research ethics committees in the UK, which highlights the central role of trust in biomedical regulatory decision making.

The British left and the defence economy

Keith Mc Loughlin

This book charts the dispute over defence spending between the left and business, government and the trade unions between 1970 and 1983. Whereas the left blamed Britain's postwar economic decline on its burdensome military commitments, successive governments used defence was a form of economic stimulus to promote jobs and sell weapons abroad.

Saving sick Britain

Martin Yuille, Bill Ollier

Britain is sick with diabetes, depression and more besides. As a consequence, society faces systemic risks. This book is a challenge to all citizens, employers, institutions to face up to the changes that society needs. A plan of action is outlined for a 'Health Society' based on prevention of these conditions so as to extend our healthy lives.

Medicine, patients and the law

Emma Cave, Margaret Brazier, Rob Heywood

The seventh edition of this much respected accessible book provides an enlightening and comprehensive account of the intersections between medicine, patients and the law.

Publics and their health

Alex Mold, Peder Clark, Hannah J. Elizabeth

Why are some groups and individuals seen as problems for public health? How does this change over time and place? Through a series of case-studies, this collection explores the making of 'problem publics' and their relationship with public health authorities.

The politics of health promotion

Peter Triantafillou, Naja Vucina

This book examines the quest to promote the health and vigour of individuals and populations in Denmark and England. Based on a detailed account of obesity control and mental recovery programs, the book shows that these interventions are supported by a form of optimistic vitalism that seems to have no political limitations.

Cold, hard steel

Agnes Arnold-Forster

Cold, hard steel anatomises the surgical stereotype in modern and contemporary Britain. It offers a new social, cultural and emotional history of this specialty, explores the development of its professional identity and foregrounds experiences of surgeons at work.

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