Health and the Modern Home

Health and the Modern Home explores shifting and contentious debates about the impact of the domestic environment on health in the modern period. Drawing on recent scholarship, contributors expose the socio-political context in which the physical and emotional environment of "the modern home" and "family" became implicated in the maintenance of health and in the aetiology and pathogenesis of diverse psychological and physical conditions. In addition, they critically analyze the manner in which the expression and articulation of medical concerns about the domestic environment served to legitimate particular political and ideological positions.

Mark Jackson is Professor of the History of Medicine and Director of the Centre for Medical History at the University of Exeter. He is the author of New-Born Child Murder (Manchester, 1996), The Borderland of Imbecility (Manchester, 2000), and Allergy: The History of a Modern Malady (London, 2006).