London and its Asylums, 1888-1914: Politics and Madness

by Robert Ellis

Overview

This book explores the impact that politics had on the management of mental health care at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. 1888 and the introduction of the Local Government Act marked a turning point in which democratically elected bodies became responsible for the management of madness for the first time. With its focus on London in the period leading up to the First World War, it offers a new way to look at institutions and to consider their connections to wider issues that were facing the capital and the nation. The chapters that follow place London at the heart of international networks and debates relating to finance, welfare, architecture, scientific and medical initiatives, and the developing responses to immigrant populations. Overall, it shines a light on the relationships between mental health policies and other ideological priorities.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783030444310
Publisher:	Springer International Publishing
Publication date:	05/21/2020
Series:	Mental Health in Historical Perspective
Edition description:	1st ed. 2020
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Robert Ellis is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Huddersfield, UK. He has published widely on the histories of mental ill-health and learning disability, and has worked in partnership on a range of impact and engagement projects that have emphasized their contemporary relevance.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: ‘The Mere Scope of it is Immense’. London and its Asylums in Context.- Chapter 2: The Politics of Administration.- Chapter 3: The Politics of Finance.- Chapter 4: The Politics of Innovation.- Chapter 5: The Politics of Architecture.- Chapter 6: The Politics of Difference.- Chapter 7: Conclusions.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"This is an important and timely contribution to the politics of mental health. Ellis’s forensic dissection of the politics and finance of asylums in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century London demonstrates the evolution of asylum and mental health care but also provides a nuanced account of local government and welfare activism in this period. This book is highly recommended for those interested not only in the history of mental health care, but also the sometimes internecine conflicts which underpinned urban government in the Victorian and Edwardian eras." (Professor Heather Shore, Director of MCPHH, Department of History, Politics and Philosophy, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK)

"An insightful account of how asylums functioned in fin-de-siècle England and the forces that shaped their everyday operations. Few histories of psychiatry compare in revealing the sheer scale of asylumdom, and the complex practical negotiations involved in building and running these institutions." (Gayle Davis, University of Edinburgh, UK)

Editorial Reviews

London and its Asylums breaks important new ground, introducing a new approach to the busy field of psychiatric history: the micropolitics of mental healthcare. By tackling the late-Victorian and Edwardian bureaucratic archive, Ellis adds a new layer to the story of a familiar institution.” (Leslie Topp, Victorian Studies, Vol. 64 (3), 2022)

“Ellis makes some very interesting observations … . The book is a valuable addition to the historiography of the English asylum system and management of mental illness. The different research approach of melding the evolution of asylumdom with development of local government in Victorian and Edwardian London, results in a thought-provoking work, one that should lead to other research on the topics raised.” (Alison Pedley, Journal of British Studies, Vol. 61 (1), January, 2022)

From the Publisher