Public Health and Politics in the Age of Reform: Cholera, the State and the Royal Navy in Victorian Britain (International Library of Historical Studies)

"Cholera was the scourge of nineteenth century Britain, with four devastating epidemics sweeping the country from the 1830s to the 1860s. David McLean provides a detailed study of the efforts of local and national government efforts to combat the disease. Based on a unique cache of documents, McLean's account exposes the struggles between local and national government as they grappled with the enormity of the problem and the conflict between policies of laissez-faire and state intervention. Describing the efforts of public health reformer Edwin Chadwick in conjunction with among others, Prime Minister Lord Russell, Admiral Lord Cochrane and local Plymouth leader Joseph Beer, McLean brings to life a vital period in British social and political history with policy consequences that reverberate today."--Bloomsbury publishing. "Cholera was the scourge of nineteenth century Britain, with four devastating epidemics sweeping the country from the 1830s to the 1860s. David McLean provides a detailed study of the efforts of local and national government efforts to combat the disease. Based on a unique cache of documents, McLean's account exposes the struggles between local and national government as they grappled with the enormity of the problem and the conflict between policies of laissez-faire and state intervention. Describing the efforts of public health reformer Edwin Chadwick in conjunction with among others, Prime Minister Lord Russell, Admiral Lord Cochrane and local Plymouth leader Joseph Beer, McLean brings to life a vital period in British social and political history with policy consequences that reverberate today."--pub. desc Introduction -- Disease, Politics And Poverty In Nineteenth-century Britain -- Boroughs And Unions Of South Devon -- Naval Towns And Naval Medicine -- Advent Of Cholera -- Local Boards Of Health -- Experiment At Noss -- Epidemic And The Royal Naval Hospital -- Litigation, The Press And The Navy -- Reaching The People: Controlling The Doctors -- Conclusion David Mclean. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [213]-230) And Index. David McLean provides a detailed study of the efforts of local and national government to combat cholera in nineteenth-century Britain. Based on a unique cache of documents, McLean's account exposes the struggles between local and national governments as they grappled with the enormity of the problem and the conflict between policies of laissez-faire and state intervention. Provides an account of the battle against cholera. This work is based on documents in the naval towns of south-west England. The author's account exposes the struggles between local and national government, and the conflict between policies of laissez-faire and state intervention. WHEN THE GERMAN scientist Robert Koch identified the cholera bacillus in 1884 he ended a debate which had divided medical opinion in Europe for over half a century.