Charles Webster has worked in Oxford since 1969. He has written extensively on science and medicine in the early modern period, most recently, a detailed study of the political and religious outlook of Paracelsus published by Yale University Press.
As the Official Historian of the NHS he produced a large-scale two volume history: The Health Services since the War, I, Problems of Health Care: The National Health Service before 1957 (London: HMSO, 1988); and The Health Services since the War, II, Government and Health Care: The British National Health Service 1958-1979 (London: The Stationery Office, 1996).
He is also responsible for shorter, more accessible surveys such as The National Health Service: A Political History (Oxford Paperbacks, Oxford University Press, 1998; second edition 2002) and Caring for Health, History and Diversity (Open University Press, 4th edition 2002).
Charles Webster is also the author of many topical and controversial essays in journals, magazines and other media.
The NHS: The Secret History
Charles Webster
9th of February 2010 Oxford Brookes University, History of Medicine Seminar Series
This paper gives an insight into the inner or ‘secret’ history of the upper ranks of the British health administration, based on many interviews with senior officials. After World War I, the work of the new Ministry of Health was handicapped by the economic depression. In addition, the new department was handicapped by the premature death of Sir Robert Morant, its architect and first Permanent Secretary. The success of the department depended on the harmonious working relation between the Permanent Secretary and Chief Medical Officer. Under the first incumbents, who were in office until 1935, this harmony failed to materialize. In addition, the early talent recruited to the department was quickly dissipated. By the late 1930s the health department had sunk into the doldrums.
P.Hennessy, Whitehall (London: Secker and Warburg, 1989)
F.Honigsbaum, The Division of British Medicine (London: Kogan Page, 1979)
R.Klein, The Politics of the National Health Service (Harlow, Longman, 1979, rather than later editions)
J.Pater, The Making of the National Health Service (London: King’s Fund, 1981)
