Public health in interwar England and Wales: did it fail? Gorsky, Martin Salud pública Administración local Inspector de higiene Medicina preventiva Public health Local government Medical Officer of Health Preventive medicine British historians initially saw the interwar period as a «golden age» for public health in local government, with unprecedented preventive and curative powers wielded by Medical Officers of Health (MOsH). In the 1980s Lewis and Webster challenged this reading, arguing that MOsH were overstretched, neglectful of their «watchdog» role and incapable of formulating a new philosophy of preventive medicine. The article first details this critique, then reappraises it in the light of recent demographic work. It then provides a case study of public health administration in South-West England. Its conclusion is that some elements of the Lewis/Webster case now deserve to be revised. 2022-10-26T11:32:31Z 2022-10-26T11:32:31Z 2008 journal article Gorsky, Martin. «Public health in interwar Britain : did it fail?». Dynamis: Acta Hispanica ad Medicinae Scientiarumque Historiam Illustrandam, 2008, Vol. 28, p. 175-198, https://raco.cat/index.php/Dynamis/article/view/118812. 0211-9536 https://hdl.handle.net/10481/77574 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ open access Atribución 4.0 Internacional Universidad de Granada