Diagnosing the medical history of British imperialism

Greenwood, Anna

Abstract

In the past two decades, particularly, the gross inequities and violence of British colonialism have increasingly featured within popular and academic histories. Yet despite the innumerable wrongs inherent in imperialism, surely the history of the western colonial medicine provides one example of colonial governance having had its heart in the right place? From the mid-19th century, the British empire saw the regular dispatch of thousands of doctors and nurses into remote areas which until that point had had little systematic contact with western biomedical treatments and public health initiatives. For all the blood on British hands politically, were the hospitals built, the drugs distributed, and the research money ploughed into tropical disease research not defensible imperial beneficences?

Citation

Greenwood, A. (2022). Diagnosing the medical history of British imperialism. Lancet, 400(10354), 726-727. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736%2822%2901648-8

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 31, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Sep 3, 2022
• Publication Date: Sep 3, 2022
• Deposit Date: Sep 5, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 4, 2023
• Journal: The Lancet
• Print ISSN: 0140-6736
• Electronic ISSN: 1474-547X
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 400
• Issue: 10354
• Pages: 726-727
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736%2822%2901648-8
• Keywords: General Medicine; history; imperialism; empire
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/10908914
• Publisher URL: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(22)01648-8/fulltext
• Additional Information: This article is maintained by: Elsevier; Article Title: Diagnosing the medical history of British imperialism; Journal Title: The Lancet; CrossRef DOI link to publisher maintained version: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)01648-8.