The Passionate Economist: How Brian Abel-Smith Shaped Global Health and Social Welfare

Sheard, Sally

Nov. 2013 · Policy Press

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Brian Abel-Smith was one of the most influential expert advisers of the 20th century in shaping social welfare. He was a modern-day Thomas Paine, driven by a strong socialist mission to improve the lives of the poorest. This valuable and accessible book is the first biography of Abel-Smith. It takes a historical perspective to analyse the development of health and social welfare systems since the 1950s, exposing the critical impact of long-running debates on poverty and state responsibility, especially in Britain. This book also provides the first comparative study of how developing countries sought better health and social welfare, enabled by the World Health Organization and other agencies for whom Abel-Smith regularly worked. This book offers an engaging and useful study for students and researchers in health and social policy, history, politics and economics and interested general readers. It will also be essential reading for professionals working in those government ministries and institutions that Brian Abel-Smith helped to shape. LSE Pioneers in Social Policy Brian Abel-Smith, Richard Titmuss and Peter Townsend, all based at the London School of Economics and Political Science, made major contributions to the development of policies on the elderly, health care, law, poverty and welfare in the 20th century. This series of biographies tells the stories of these outstanding individuals: their backgrounds, ideas and work.

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Sally Sheard is a health and social policy historian at the University of Liverpool, and Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She also works as a consultant providing local authorities with historical context on contemporary health issues and has appeared on various TV and radio programmes, including BBC4's documentary series Health before the NHS. She is the author of (with Liam Donaldson) The Nation’s Doctor: The role of the Chief Medical Officer, 1855-1998 (Oxford, Radcliffe Medical, 2005), and a member of the editorial team of History & Policy.