Patient Voices in Britain, 1840–1948

Unlike many edited volumes, the editors and contributors have made a concerted effort here to integrate their contributions speak to each other. Particularly valuable are the efforts that each chapter makes to show how historical research can improve contemporary policy making. The volume convincingly shows that patients—including those outside the entitled classes—were far from voiceless; by reading records ‘against the grain’ or mining extant archival collections with them in mind, these historians have lived up to Roy Porter’s call to write more patient-centred narratives.Social History of Medicine

Anne Hanley is a Lecturer in History of Science and Medicine at Birkbeck, University of London.

Jessica Meyer is Associate Professor of Modern British History at the University of Leeds.