Jennifer Crane - The Place of Activism in History & Policy

History & Policy

Jennifer Crane (Warwick): ‘The NHS … should not be condemned to the history books’: The Place of Activism in History & Policy.

In a public event in South Wales in June 2017, one participant stated that the NHS must not be ‘condemned to the history books’ alone. This critical comment raises a series of questions about the relationships between history, policy, and activism, and also about the roles of public history in celebrating, criticising, or condemning public institutions. Drawing on research and engagement work, this paper argues that, throughout the post-war period, activist work has prefigured, reshaped, and represented broader cultural shifts in attitudes to the NHS, particularly through media and, newly, social media networks. Given this, therefore, analysis of activism provides a key mechanism, for historians and policy-makers alike, to understand schisms in public opinion over time, and to analyse how voluntary organisations mediate between public and political thinking.

Jennifer Crane is a Public Engagement Research Fellow at the University of Warwick, working on a Wellcome Trust-funded project, ‘The Cultural History of the NHS’. This involves substantial work with Museums, hospitals, campaign groups, and media, particularly around the recent 70th Anniversary of the NHS. She has broader research interests in health, activism, policy, and childhood. Her first book was published this year, entitled Child Protection in England, 1960-2000: Expertise, Experience, and Emotion.