The public health movement involved numerous individuals who made the case for change and put new practices into place. However despite a growing interest in how we understand history to inform current evidence-based practice, there is no book focusing on our progressive pioneers in public health and environmental health.

This book seeks to fill that gap. It examines carefully selected public and environmental health pioneers who made a real difference to the UK's health, some with international influence. Many of these pioneers were criticised in their life-times, yet they had the strength of character to know what they were doing was fundamentally right and persevered, often against many odds. Including chapters on:

• Thomas Fresh
• John Snow
• Duncan of Liverpool
• Margaret McMillan
• George Cadbury
• Christopher Addison
• Margery Spring Rice and others.

This book will help readers place pioneers in a wider context and to make more sense of their academic and practitioner work today; how evidence (and what was historically understood by it) underpins modern day practice; and how these visionary pioneers developed their ideas into practice, some not fully appreciated until after their own deaths. Pioneers in Public Health sets the tone for a renewed focus on research into evidence-based public and environmental health, which has become subject of growing international interest in recent years.

About the Author

Jill Stewart worked as an Environmental Health Officer specialising in private sector housing for several years before becoming a lecturer in London universities teaching housing, public health, environmental health and social work at undergraduate and post-graduate levels. She is a Corporate Member of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, a Fellow of both the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health and the Royal Geographical Society and an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Housing.

Reviews

'[a] timely and inspiring book' Environmental Health News

"The authors of the 12 contributions to this readable book were asked to write about a pioneer for whom they had great regard, with an overall theme of examining how history informs current evidence-based policy. The result is an overdue focus on the important role environmental health plays in shaping modern themes in the UK and elsewhere, as well as giving insight into the profound effects on beliefs and actions that arise from the era, values and attitudes into which we are born ... (Chadwick's) well documented work is dealt with in Stewart's excellent introduction, while the chapters cover lesser known pioneers... Even if you know about some or all of these pioneers, you will find new insights and fascinating facts about their lives and works. Stewart's conclusion to these inspiring accounts is that the battles for public health resonates with our contemporary activities and that some supposedly 'old fashioned' views are more progressive, radical and forward thinking than those held by many who are in a position to do something about public health today'. This is a great book not only for students and new professionals but also for environmental health and public health practitioners. It will be invaluable for teaching. Stewart cites the historian Virginia Berridge's observation that 'history needs to be part of the process of evidence-based policy'. This book will convince you of this view and may help to develop the next generation of reformers and policy makers." Rosalind Stawell-Smith, RSPH Perspectives in Public Health

Book Information
ISBN 9781138059450
Author Jill Stewart
Format Hardback
Page Count 144
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 340g