Traces the history of the British General Medical Council to reveal the persistence of hierarchies of gender, national identity, and race in determining who was fit to practice British medicine. Fit to Practice proposes a new narrative of the making of the modern British medical profession, situating it in relation to the imperatives and tensions of national and imperial interests. The narrative is interwoven withthe institutional history of the General Medical Council (GMC), the main regulatory body of the medical profession. The GMC's management of the medical register from 1858 to 1980 offers important insight into the political underpinning of the profession, particularly when it came to regulating who was fit to practice medicine, under what conditions, and where. Technically, admission to the British medical register endowed all doctors with common rights andprivileges. Yet the differential treatment of women in the nineteenth century, Jewish medical refugees during World War II, and Indian doctors both before and after decolonization reveals the persistence of hierarchies of gender,national identity, and race in determining who was fit to practice British medicine. Part 1 of the book, which spans from 1858 to 1948, focuses on the transformation of the British Empire from a destination for the surplus production of domestic medical graduates to a critical source of medical labor for Britain during wartime. Part 2 examines the postwar causes and consequences of the unprecedented globalization of the domestic profession. Douglas M. Haynes is Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine.
Reviews
Contributes not just to the history of British medicine but to global history. It offers a useful and clearly written overview of the complex evolution of medical regulation in Britain. * ISIS, JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE SOCIETY *
An excellent departure point for other studies on the important questions of empire, race and gender in the context of the globalisation of medicine. * SOCIAL HISTORY OF MEDICINE *
Fit to Practice offers a compelling historical study on how policies and practices of the British medical profession developed to exclude, include, and manage people under the empire and its national identity: domestic and overseas doctors, doctors of color, women, and the colonial subjects. . . . Readers who are interested in the historical roles of medicine and medical doctors in the British Empire should find Haynes' work to be thorough and deeply engrossing. * WATERMARK *
Haynes' style is clear and his arguments well presented. * BRITISH SOCIETY FOR THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE *



Book Information
ISBN 9781580465816
Author Douglas M. Haynes
Format Hardback
Page Count 256
Imprint University of Rochester Press
Publisher Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Weight(grams) 1g