Public Health in the British Empire : Intermediaries, Subordinates, and the Practice of Public Health, 1850-1960

Public Health in the British Empire addresses the work of intermediary and subordinate personnel in relation to public health in the British empire. These individuals were not only essential for putting public health policy into practice, but could also impact its formation. They constitute one of the most important, and understudied topics in the history of British colonial medicine.

Over the last several decades, historians of public health in Britain’s colonies have been primarily concerned with the process of policy making in the upper echelons of the medical and sanitary administrations. Yet it was the lower level staff that formed the backbone of public health systems in the colonies. Although they constituted the bases of many colonies’ public health machinery, there is no consolidated study of these individuals to date. Public Health in the British Empire addresses this gap by bringing together historians studying intermediary and subordinate staff across the British Empire.

Along with investigating the duties and responsibilities of medical and non-medical intermediary and subordinate personnel, the contributors to this volume show how the subjectivity of these agents influenced the manner in which they discharged their duties and how this in turn shaped policy. Even those working as low level assistants and aids were able to affect policy design. In this way, Public Health in the British Empire brings into sharp relief the disaggregated nature of the empire, thereby challenging the understanding of the imperial project as an enterprise conceived of and driven from the center.