The importance of the past in public health
- Correspondence to: Professor V Berridge Centre for History in Public Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK; virginia.berridgelshtm.ac.uk
This issue contains a paper by Scally and Womack that emphasises the need to expand historical knowledge and understanding in the public health profession.
This editorial comments on a paper by Scally and Womack in the same issue.1 It announces the establishment of a new journal series on history. It reports the launch of the Centre for History in Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. It summarises the launch lecture on the importance of history in the assessment of globalisation. It argues for more involvement of history and historians in the teaching of public health professionals and for revision of the professional curriculum.
There are some recent and forthcoming developments on this front. The authors mention the lack of a regular historical series in public health journals, with the notable exception of the American Journal of Public Health’s long running “Public Health Then and Now”. There will be a new historical series, “Public Health Past and Present” in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. Contributions are welcome on any topic relevant to the subject. We hope to publish short research based papers that will enable historians to interact with the public health field and vice versa.
Exchanges between the two fields have been taking place in other ways. The launch of the new Centre for History in Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in November 2003 has the aim of strengthening the links between historians …
