Brice Harris
Biographic Data
| ID | 77225 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Brice Harris |
| GIVEN NAMES | Brice |
| FAMILY NAME | Harris |
| SIGNATURE | HARRIS B |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Southampton |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7118-1118 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 47 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 100 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 47 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1936 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
The legacy of voluntarism: Charitable funding in the early NHS
Before 1948, approximately one-third of the United Kingdom (UK)'s hospital beds were located in voluntary hospitals, many of which continued to benefit from the funds generated by their historic endowments. When the National Health Service (NHS) was created, the vast majority of these hospitals were taken over by the State. This paper examines the neglected question of what happened to these endowments and the role which charity continued to play…
Social security, full employment and voluntary action: The three pillars of William Beveridge's welfare society
William Beveridge's report on Social insurance and allied services has often been described as a ‘blueprint’ for the creation of Britain's post‐war welfare state. However, it was only one of three major reports which Beveridge produced during the 1940s. This paper looks at all three reports and places them in the context of Beveridge's other writings and developments in the history of British social policy. It explores the different ways in which…
Did statutory insurance improve the welfare of Swedish workers? The statutory workplace accident insurance act of 1916
Welfare researchers have regarded statutory accident insurance in 1916 as a starting point for the exceptional expansion of the Swedish welfare state. However, rather less attention has been paid to the roles played by mutual insurance societies and employer compensation schemes in offering voluntary welfare protection. We argue that voluntary welfare protection was an integral part of the early-twentieth century welfare system and played a cruci…
Growth before birth: The relationship between placental weights and infant and maternal health in early twentieth-century Barcelona
Although a number of writers have argued that birth weights have increased in different parts of the world over the last 150 years, others have disputed this. The absence of clear evidence of increasing birth weights contrasts with the picture provided by child and adult heights and raises profound questions about the measurement of changes in intrauterine health. This article uses newly discovered data from Barcelona's Provincial House to examin…
Parsimony and Pauperism: Poor Relief in England, Scotland and Wales in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries
As the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws noted in 1909, the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 and the Poor Law (Scotland) Act of 1845 sprang from rather different motives. Whereas the first Act aimed to restrict the provision of poor relief, the second was designed to enhance it. However, despite these aims, it is generally accepted that Scotland's Poor Law continued to relieve a smaller proportion of its population and to spend less money on them. …
Mortality decline by cause in urban and rural England and Wales, 1851–1910
This paper presents a new analysis of the contribution of particular causes of death to the decline of mortality in England and Wales between 1851 and 1910. We examine deaths in a set of 588 registration areas based on the registration districts but amalgamated where necessary so that the boundaries of the areas are consistent over time. The deaths are classified by cause, and the paper discusses changes in the classification of causes of death b…
Sanitary investment and the decline of urban mortality in England and Wales, 1817–1914
Previous authors have drawn attention to the role played by loan-financed public works in reducing mortality in England and Wales during the latter part of the nineteenth century. These arguments have often been based on an analysis of the loans sanctioned by the Government’s central health departments following the creation of the first General Board of Health in 1848, but little attempt has been made to disaggregate the loans either by function…
Urban sanitation and the decline of mortality
This paper introduces a special issue of The History of the Family on sanitation and urban mortality. The special issue contains papers which focus on the impact of sanitary reforms on mortality change in Australia, Switzerland, Finland, Sweden, and England and Wales. The current paper outlines the main features of the debate over the causes of mortality change and the role played by sanitary reforms in this. It then highlights some of the method…
Social Policy by Other Means? Mutual Aid and the Origins of the Modern Welfare State in Britain During the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
During the last twenty years, several writers have drawn attention to the role played by friendly societies and other mutual-aid organizations in the development of Britain’s welfare state. Proponents of mutual aid have argued that these organizations were part of the rich associational culture of working-class life; that they represented a viable alternative to state welfare; and that they were eventually undermined by it. However, this article …
Climate Effects and Stature since 1800
During the last 30 years, economic and social historians have collected and analyzed large amounts of anthropometric data to explore key aspects of the human past. Attention has also been devoted to the examination of factors that can exert an influence on stature. This article outlines the different ways in which climate might influence stature, either directly or indirectly. It then uses geographical information system software to explore the r…
The Welfare State and the ‘Deviant Poor’ in Europe, 1870–1933
The years between 1870 and 1914 have often been regarded as playing a formative role in the development of the modern welfare state, although the question of whether it is appropriate to argue that
United States Strategic Culture and Asia-Pacific Security
This article adopts an historical socio-cultural lens to analyse the United States' strategic cultural tendencies. It traces the roots of the mutually constitutive relationship between technology and political structures in the United States to explain the dominant tendency of the United States to substitute technology for strategy in war as a predisposition of national strategic culture. This predisposition was seen particularly in network-centr…
Long-term changes in sickness and health: Further evidence from the Hampshire Friendly Society1
This article presents new evidence on long-term trends in sickness rates in England and Wales using data from the Hampshire Friendly Society. In previous work, Edwards, Gorsky, Harris, and Hinde argued that this Society contained a uniquely detailed set of records for the study of individual sickness histories. However, their initial findings were based on the records of a relatively small number of men who joined the Society at different points …
The Changing Body: Health, Nutrition, and Human Development in the Western World since 1700
Humans have become much taller and heavier, and experience healthier and longer lives than ever before in human history. However it is only recently that historians, economists, human biologists and demographers have linked the changing size, shape and capability of the human body to economic and demographic change. This fascinating and groundbreaking book presents an accessible introduction to the field of anthropometric history, surveying the c…
Ageing, Sickness and Health in England and Wales during the Mortality Transition
During the second half of the nineteenth century, friendly-society actuaries became increasingly concerned about an apparent increase in recorded morbidity. They attributed this increase to changes in sickness behaviour and a decline in the societies' ability to police sickness claims. These arguments have been echoed by a number of historians but others have suggested that the increase represented a real change in sickness experience. This paper…
The 'cultural inflation of morbidity' during the English mortality decline: A new look
Death before birth: Fetal health and mortality in historical perspective - By Robert Woods
Years of State Pension: Learning from the past - By Tony Slater, Andrew Bryans, Colin Redman, and Martin Hewitt
Low income, social growth and good health: A history of twelve countries - By James C. Riley
Unemployment, poverty and health in interwar south Wales – By Steven Thomson
Age, Sickness, and Longevity in the Late Nineteenth and the Early Twentieth Centuries: Evidence from the Hampshire Friendly Society
We examine the relationship between age, sickness and longevity among men who were members of the Hampshire Friendly Society (HFS) in southern England during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. The HFS insured its members against sickness, death and old age, keeping detailed records of the claims for sick pay submitted by its members from 1868 onwards. From 1892 onwards, these records included information about the cause of the sic…
Age, Sickness, and Longevity in the Late Nineteenth and the Early Twentieth Centuries: Evidence from the Hampshire Friendly Society
We examine the relationship between age, sickness, and longevity among men who were members of the Hampshire Friendly Society (HFS) in southern England during the late nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. The HFS insured its members against sickness, death, and old age, keeping detailed records of the claims for sick pay submitted by its members from 1868 onward. From 1892 onward these records included information about the cause of the …
Health and wealth: Studies in history and policy - Simon Szreter
Welfare since 1945: Rewriting the History of Britain's Welfare State
The Welfare state in Britain since 1945. By Rodney Lowe. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2005. xi + 513 pp. ISBN 1-4039-1192-4 (hardback), £49.50; 1-4039-1193-2 (paperback), £16.99. A More Equal Society? New Labour, Poverty, Inequality and Exclusion. Edited by John Hills and Kitty Stewart. Policy Press, Bristol, 2005. xv + 391 pp. ISBN 1-86124-578-X (hardback), £55.00; 1-86134-577-1 (paperback), £19.99. Better or Worse? Has New Labour Delivered?…
The Origins of the British Welfare State
Public Health, Nutrition, and the Decline of Mortality: The McKeown Thesis Revisited
The medical writer, Thomas McKeown, can justifiably claim to have been one of the most influential figures in the development of the social history of medicine during the third quarter of the twentieth century. Between 1955 and his death in 1988, he published a stream of articles and books in which he outlined his ideas about the reasons for the decline of mortality and the ‘modern rise of population’ in Britain and other countries from the early…
Sanitary investment and the decline of urban mortality in England and Wales, 1817–1914
Previous authors have drawn attention to the role played by loan-financed public works in reducing mortality in England and Wales during the latter part of the nineteenth century. These arguments have often been based on an analysis of the loans sanctioned by the Government’s central health departments following the creation of the first General Board of Health in 1848, but little attempt has been made to disaggregate the loans either by function…
Urban sanitation and the decline of mortality
This paper introduces a special issue of The History of the Family on sanitation and urban mortality. The special issue contains papers which focus on the impact of sanitary reforms on mortality change in Australia, Switzerland, Finland, Sweden, and England and Wales. The current paper outlines the main features of the debate over the causes of mortality change and the role played by sanitary reforms in this. It then highlights some of the method…
Health, Height, and History: An Overview of Recent Developments in Anthropometric History
This paper examines some of the major developments in the field of anthropometric history since the end of the 1970s. The first two sections of the paper consider the conceptual basis of anthropometric history and the relationship between height and the standard of living. Sections 3-7 discuss the contributions made by anthropometric historians to our understanding of the social and economic history of the United States, the history of American s…
Mortality decline by cause in urban and rural England and Wales, 1851–1910
This paper presents a new analysis of the contribution of particular causes of death to the decline of mortality in England and Wales between 1851 and 1910. We examine deaths in a set of 588 registration areas based on the registration districts but amalgamated where necessary so that the boundaries of the areas are consistent over time. The deaths are classified by cause, and the paper discusses changes in the classification of causes of death b…
Social Policy by Other Means? Mutual Aid and the Origins of the Modern Welfare State in Britain During the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
During the last twenty years, several writers have drawn attention to the role played by friendly societies and other mutual-aid organizations in the development of Britain’s welfare state. Proponents of mutual aid have argued that these organizations were part of the rich associational culture of working-class life; that they represented a viable alternative to state welfare; and that they were eventually undermined by it. However, this article …
The Changing Body: Health, Nutrition, and Human Development in the Western World since 1700
Humans have become much taller and heavier, and experience healthier and longer lives than ever before in human history. However it is only recently that historians, economists, human biologists and demographers have linked the changing size, shape and capability of the human body to economic and demographic change. This fascinating and groundbreaking book presents an accessible introduction to the field of anthropometric history, surveying the c…
Ageing, Sickness and Health in England and Wales during the Mortality Transition
During the second half of the nineteenth century, friendly-society actuaries became increasingly concerned about an apparent increase in recorded morbidity. They attributed this increase to changes in sickness behaviour and a decline in the societies' ability to police sickness claims. These arguments have been echoed by a number of historians but others have suggested that the increase represented a real change in sickness experience. This paper…
Anti‐Alienism, health and social reform in late Victorian and Edwardian Britain 1
The A. recalls that between 1880 and 1914, Great Britain knew a very strong Jewish immigration coming from the countries of Eastern Europe. It stresses that this immigration was going to meet a strong opposition in this country. It evokes the situation of the Jews in Russia and Poland at this period. It analyzes the role of the organizations charged, in Great Britain, of the reception of the Jewish immigrants in particular in the field of health.…
The Welfare State and the ‘Deviant Poor’ in Europe, 1870–1933
The years between 1870 and 1914 have often been regarded as playing a formative role in the development of the modern welfare state, although the question of whether it is appropriate to argue that
Long-term changes in sickness and health: Further evidence from the Hampshire Friendly Society1
This article presents new evidence on long-term trends in sickness rates in England and Wales using data from the Hampshire Friendly Society. In previous work, Edwards, Gorsky, Harris, and Hinde argued that this Society contained a uniquely detailed set of records for the study of individual sickness histories. However, their initial findings were based on the records of a relatively small number of men who joined the Society at different points …
Age, Sickness, and Longevity in the Late Nineteenth and the Early Twentieth Centuries: Evidence from the Hampshire Friendly Society
We examine the relationship between age, sickness and longevity among men who were members of the Hampshire Friendly Society (HFS) in southern England during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. The HFS insured its members against sickness, death and old age, keeping detailed records of the claims for sick pay submitted by its members from 1868 onwards. From 1892 onwards, these records included information about the cause of the sic…
Morbidity and Mortality during the Health Transition: A Comment on James C. Riley, 'Why Sickness and Death Rates do not Move Parallel to One Another over Time
Throughout most parts of the world, mortality rates have fallen dramatically since the mid-nineteenth century, but morbidity rates appear to have risen.1 James Riley's article is the latest in a series of attempts to explain this paradox. It breaks new ground, in relation to the author's previous work, in its use of a mathematical model to explain the relationship between morbidity and mortality, and in the deployment of new data from the Abthorp…
Growing Taller, Living Longer? Anthropometric History and the Future of Old Age
In recent years, economic and social historians have made increasing use of anthropometric records (principally, records of human height and weight) to investigate changes in human health and well-being. This paper summarises some of the main findings of this research and demonstrates the remarkable increases in human height which have occurred during the course of the present century. The paper also examines the relationship between changes in a…
The Health of the Schoolchild
The Demographic Impact of the First World War: An Anthropometric Perspective
During the 1970s and 1980s Jay Winter published a series of highly influential articles on the demographic impact of the First World War, culminating in his study of The Great War and the British People in 1986. Winter argued that the war led to a dramatic improvement in average living standards, and that the survival chances of most sections of the civilian population improved more rapidly than they might have done if peace had been maintained. …
The Reluctant Belligerent. American Entry Into World War II
The legacy of voluntarism: Charitable funding in the early NHS
Before 1948, approximately one-third of the United Kingdom (UK)'s hospital beds were located in voluntary hospitals, many of which continued to benefit from the funds generated by their historic endowments. When the National Health Service (NHS) was created, the vast majority of these hospitals were taken over by the State. This paper examines the neglected question of what happened to these endowments and the role which charity continued to play…
Did statutory insurance improve the welfare of Swedish workers? The statutory workplace accident insurance act of 1916
Welfare researchers have regarded statutory accident insurance in 1916 as a starting point for the exceptional expansion of the Swedish welfare state. However, rather less attention has been paid to the roles played by mutual insurance societies and employer compensation schemes in offering voluntary welfare protection. We argue that voluntary welfare protection was an integral part of the early-twentieth century welfare system and played a cruci…
Growth before birth: The relationship between placental weights and infant and maternal health in early twentieth-century Barcelona
Although a number of writers have argued that birth weights have increased in different parts of the world over the last 150 years, others have disputed this. The absence of clear evidence of increasing birth weights contrasts with the picture provided by child and adult heights and raises profound questions about the measurement of changes in intrauterine health. This article uses newly discovered data from Barcelona's Provincial House to examin…
Parsimony and Pauperism: Poor Relief in England, Scotland and Wales in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries
As the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws noted in 1909, the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 and the Poor Law (Scotland) Act of 1845 sprang from rather different motives. Whereas the first Act aimed to restrict the provision of poor relief, the second was designed to enhance it. However, despite these aims, it is generally accepted that Scotland's Poor Law continued to relieve a smaller proportion of its population and to spend less money on them. …
Climate Effects and Stature since 1800
During the last 30 years, economic and social historians have collected and analyzed large amounts of anthropometric data to explore key aspects of the human past. Attention has also been devoted to the examination of factors that can exert an influence on stature. This article outlines the different ways in which climate might influence stature, either directly or indirectly. It then uses geographical information system software to explore the r…
The 'cultural inflation of morbidity' during the English mortality decline: A new look
Epicurus in England (1650-1725).
Captain Robert Julian, Secretary to the Muses
When Dryden frequented Will's Coffee-house, wrote Steele, you used to see songs, epigrams, and satires in the hands of every man you met. ' Here on the tables for public inspection, in the greatcoats of booby wits and squires, or in the portfolios of penniless vendors one might find the best and the worst-but always the latest-verses. Here was the clearinghouse for both wit and scandal, the rendezvous of Dryden and the great wits as well as the t…
A Portrait of a Moor
Recently, the Shakespeare Institute acquired a portrait of the Moorish ambassador to Elizabeth in 1600—a portrait which is of considerable interest to students of history, of art and of the theatre (Plate ). For the historian it gives character to an episode, nowhere fully recorded, in the diplomatic relations between England and Barbary. It forms, too, a handsome and out-of-the-common addition to the gallery of Tudor portraits. For those concern…
The United States and the Italo-Ethiopian Crisis
Journal Article The United States and the Italo-Ethiopian Crisis. By Brice Harris, Jr. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1964. vi + 187 pp. Notes, bibiographical note, and index. $5.50.) Get access Robert A. Friedlander Robert A. Friedlander University of Illinois Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 52, Issue 2, September 1965, Pages 430–431, https://doi.org/10.2307/1908…
The Reluctant Belligerent. American Entry Into World War II
The United States and the Italo-Ethiopian Crisis
American Theatre
American Theatre
U.S. Foreign Policy and the Shah: Building a Client State in Iran.
The Demographic Impact of the First World War: An Anthropometric Perspective
During the 1970s and 1980s Jay Winter published a series of highly influential articles on the demographic impact of the First World War, culminating in his study of The Great War and the British People in 1986. Winter argued that the war led to a dramatic improvement in average living standards, and that the survival chances of most sections of the civilian population improved more rapidly than they might have done if peace had been maintained. …
Poor Citizens: The State and the Poor in Twentieth-Century Britain
Preface 1. Strategies of poverty 1900-14 2. Poverty and power 1914-39 3. Poverty and history 1939-64 4. Poverty and growth 1964-90 Glossary Bibliography Index
Health, Height, and History: An Overview of Recent Developments in Anthropometric History
This paper examines some of the major developments in the field of anthropometric history since the end of the 1970s. The first two sections of the paper consider the conceptual basis of anthropometric history and the relationship between height and the standard of living. Sections 3-7 discuss the contributions made by anthropometric historians to our understanding of the social and economic history of the United States, the history of American s…
Growing Taller, Living Longer? Anthropometric History and the Future of Old Age
In recent years, economic and social historians have made increasing use of anthropometric records (principally, records of human height and weight) to investigate changes in human health and well-being. This paper summarises some of the main findings of this research and demonstrates the remarkable increases in human height which have occurred during the course of the present century. The paper also examines the relationship between changes in a…
Anti‐Alienism, health and social reform in late Victorian and Edwardian Britain 1
The A. recalls that between 1880 and 1914, Great Britain knew a very strong Jewish immigration coming from the countries of Eastern Europe. It stresses that this immigration was going to meet a strong opposition in this country. It evokes the situation of the Jews in Russia and Poland at this period. It analyzes the role of the organizations charged, in Great Britain, of the reception of the Jewish immigrants in particular in the field of health.…
The Health of the Schoolchild
Living with Africa
Morbidity and Mortality during the Health Transition: A Comment on James C. Riley, 'Why Sickness and Death Rates do not Move Parallel to One Another over Time
Throughout most parts of the world, mortality rates have fallen dramatically since the mid-nineteenth century, but morbidity rates appear to have risen.1 James Riley's article is the latest in a series of attempts to explain this paradox. It breaks new ground, in relation to the author's previous work, in its use of a mathematical model to explain the relationship between morbidity and mortality, and in the deployment of new data from the Abthorp…
The Social History of Health and Healing
These three books examine very different aspects of the history of health and medicine in Britain, France and Germany since the mid-seventeenth century. They also illustrate differing views of the relationship between the past and the present. John Frangos, From Housing the Poor to Healing the Sick: the Changing Institution of Paris Hospitals under the Old Regime and Revolution, London, Associated University Presses, 1997; ISBN 0–838–63705–1; 247…
Government and Charity in the Distressed Mining Areas of England and Wales, 1928–30
Historians of social policy often tend to write about the history of welfare provision as though state welfare and private charity were entirely unrelated phenomena. This tendency is particularly apparent in accounts of the history of social policy in the twentieth century, which tend to concentrate almost entirely on the development of the statutory welfare services and the ultimate emergence of the ‘welfare state’.1 Most historians would agree …
Sickness, insurance and health: Assessing trends in morbidity through friendly society records
During the last twenty years, social and demographic historians have used a variety of approaches to investigate the health of past generations. Whilst a great deal of effort has been devoted to the analysis of anthropometric indicators, a smaller number of historians have used friendly society records to investigate aspects of sickness and morbidity. This paper reports our own efforts to investigate the health experience of members of the Hampsh…
Human Growth from Conception to Maturity
The Origins of the British Welfare State
Public Health, Nutrition, and the Decline of Mortality: The McKeown Thesis Revisited
The medical writer, Thomas McKeown, can justifiably claim to have been one of the most influential figures in the development of the social history of medicine during the third quarter of the twentieth century. Between 1955 and his death in 1988, he published a stream of articles and books in which he outlined his ideas about the reasons for the decline of mortality and the ‘modern rise of population’ in Britain and other countries from the early…
Welfare since 1945: Rewriting the History of Britain's Welfare State
The Welfare state in Britain since 1945. By Rodney Lowe. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2005. xi + 513 pp. ISBN 1-4039-1192-4 (hardback), £49.50; 1-4039-1193-2 (paperback), £16.99. A More Equal Society? New Labour, Poverty, Inequality and Exclusion. Edited by John Hills and Kitty Stewart. Policy Press, Bristol, 2005. xv + 391 pp. ISBN 1-86124-578-X (hardback), £55.00; 1-86134-577-1 (paperback), £19.99. Better or Worse? Has New Labour Delivered?…
Age, Sickness, and Longevity in the Late Nineteenth and the Early Twentieth Centuries: Evidence from the Hampshire Friendly Society
We examine the relationship between age, sickness and longevity among men who were members of the Hampshire Friendly Society (HFS) in southern England during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. The HFS insured its members against sickness, death and old age, keeping detailed records of the claims for sick pay submitted by its members from 1868 onwards. From 1892 onwards, these records included information about the cause of the sic…
Political science (30 works) · Sociology (25 works) · History (21 works) · Historical Economic and Social Studies (19 works) · Law (19 works) · History (16 works) · Medicine (16 works) · Law (14 works) · Economics (12 works) · Geography (11 works)