The Development and Present State of History of Medicine in Britain

Abstract

This is a personal account of scholarship in the history of medicine in Britain, from the 1960s onwards, drawn from recollections and knowledge of the literature. The institutional development of the subject is reviewed, emphasizing the contributions of the Wellcome Trust; the various modes of historical research and writing are surveyed and assessed. Modest suggestions are made for renewing the historiography of medical sciences and technologies-to contribute to the politics of knowledge and to wider histories.