2. First Phase, 1660-1815

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this module, we explore the first phase of public health from 1660-1815. This was a time of a mild increase in life expectancy from around thirty-five years to forty-one years. This increase was the result of a number of factors, including: (i) the decline in occurrence of plague; (ii) the decline in famine as a result of introduction of the Elizabethan Poor Laws; (iii) the increase in inoculation; (iv) increasing understandings of childcare; and (v) the draining of England's wetlands.

Course

In this course, Professor Simon Szreter (University of Cambridge) explores public health in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the first module, we take a look at what evidence survives for the historian when assessing public health in this period and we lay out the phases of public heath from 1700-1900. After this, we turn to look at the three phases of public health: (i) 1660-1815; (i) 1815-69; and (iii) 1869-1914. In the final module, we give some concluding comments about the period as a whole.

Lecturer

Simon Szreter is Professor of History and Public Policy at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of St John's College. He specialises in the social, economic, cultural and political history of population, public health and reproduction. He has written a number of books including Fertility, Class and Gender in Britain and After the Virus, Lessons from the Past for a Better Future.