Copyright

Jim Harris

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First published 2025

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ISBN-13: 978-1-64825-101-6 (hardcover); ISBN-13: 978-1-80543-730-7 (ePDF); ISBN-13: 978-1-80543-731-4 (ePUB); ISSN: 1526-2715

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Harris, James Jeffrey, author.

Title: Children’s health and urban ecology in England, 1885–1919 / Jim Harris.

Other titles: Rochester studies in medical history. 1526-2715

Description: Rochester, NY : University of Rochester Press, [2025] | Series: Rochester studies in medical history | Includes bibliographical references and index. |

Classification: LCC RJ101 (print) | LCC RJ101 (ebook) | NLM WS 11 FE5 | DDC 362.19892000942—dc23/eng/20250220

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2024058191

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2024058192

A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

Cover image: Advertising card promoting Dr. Jayne’s Tonic Vermifuge, active against dyspepsia, and Jayne’s Expectorant, used in the treatment of coughs and colds. Public Domain Mark. Source: Wellcome Collection. Cover design: riverdesignbooks.com

Details

Children’s Health and Urban Ecology in England, 1885–1919

Stable URL:https://openaccess.boydellandbrewercms.com/?id=-297396

Open Access license

Analyzes public health efforts to reduce infant mortality and improve children's health in three large English cities: Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester.

WINNER: 2026 Ohio Academy of History Junior Publication Award

While English public health efforts had reduced the threat of infectious diseases and improved sanitation by the end of the Victorian era, soaring infant mortality rates brought children's health to the forefront of public health concerns. Efforts to understand the causes of infant mortality and improve children's survival required attention to the environments where infant mortality was often highest, i.e., in the cities.

Children's Health and Urban Ecology in England, 1885-1919 examines the history of urban public health campaigns in three of the largest English cities, Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester. It considers how local environments impacted children's health by creating ecological conditions ripe for the spread of disease, as well as opportunities for improvements and interventions. Between 1885 and 1919, English public health leaders began to establish increasingly localized approaches to public health that included interventions in households and at schools. This work was conducted by new types of public health professionals, including health visitors to new mothers and school medical officers. While these programs emerged from local environmental conditions, two imperial military conflicts (the Second Anglo-Boer War and the First World War) drew national attention to the importance of children's health. In examining the effects of these conflicts as well as the urgent response to local environmental conditions, Children's Health and Urban Ecology highlights how the epicenter of public health shifted from cities to the state by the end of the First World War.

Author

Jim Harris

PublisherUniversity of Rochester Press

Print publication date Jun, 2025

Print ISBN 9781648251016

EISBN 9781805437307

Base text size -

Copyright

Children’s Health and Urban Ecology in England, 1885–1919

Chapter illustrations ()