Refreshments and discussion. All are welcome.

In this seminar, a team of researchers based in the Centre for the History of Medicine at Warwick will discuss a problem at the centre of their new research on the Cultural History of the NHS: what’s cultural about the NHS? Although we benefit from a significant body of work on the history of the NHS, this is largely focused on specific areas of medicine and the evolution of policy. As a review of this literature in the 60^th anniversary year of the NHS pointed out, it is rather striking that we have no cultural history of this key national institution. But what should a cultural history of the NHS be about? What is the culture of the NHS, what are the sources and methodologies needed for its history, what might this history look like, and why might it be important? In this seminar, the five research fellows on the project (Jennifer Crane, George Gosling, Jane Hand, Natalie Jones, and Jack Saunders) will each offer their own perspective on these questions. The lead investigators, Roberta Bivins and Mathew Thomson, will introduce the discussion and offer reflections at the end.