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From 1650 to 1750 the provision of medical care for injured seamen in the Royal Navy underwent a major transformation, shifting from care provided by civilians in private homes to care at hospitals run by the navy. Early Modern Naval Health Care in England examines the factors responsible for the emergence of centralized naval health care over the course of a century.
In 1650 sick and injured Royal Navy sailors were billeted in homes in coastal communities where civilians were paid to look after them. Care work, which involved making meals and feeding patients, administering medicines, washing clothes and bed linens, and shaving and cutting hair, was essential to the recovery of tens of thousands of seamen – and it was done mostly by women. Beginning at the turn of the eighteenth century, naval health care moved to a more centralized system based in hospitals, where the conduct of sailors and care workers could be overseen. A key factor driving this change was the relationships between naval officials and female civilian caregivers, which were often fraught. Yet even with the shift to naval hospital settings, most care for convalescing sailors continued to be provided by women.
Early Modern Naval Health Care in England shines a light on the care work that lay behind England’s formidable Royal Navy during the Age of Sail.
"Matthew Neufeld’s book is an important, archivally grounded intervention into an underserved topic. This is a meticulous and useful study, consolidating our knowledge of an important topic through impressive archival excavation." Social History of Medicine
"A brief summary cannot adequately capture the wealth of granular detail that Neufeld’s text offers on the workings of naval health care. Neufeld offers a picture of dedicated bureaucrats, honest contractors, and well-meaning care providers, together delivering care that was remarkably satisfactory for all parties and which only occasionally—and then temporarily—fell short of the 'preservative ethos.'" American Historical Review
“The book’s greatest strength is in the way Neufeld provides a nuanced answer as to how England developed one of the world’s most formidable navies. The wealth and financial innovations of the English empire ensured that the state could marshal the resources necessary to withstand expensive global wars, while simultaneously expanding its capacity for providing care. Moreover, ordinary people, mostly women, underpinned the health care system’s survival in its early phases and helped shape its development into becoming more institutionalized by the mid-eighteenth century. …[I]t is these women, just as much as kings, generals, and politicians, who should be looked at as contributors to the rise of the Royal Navy as a dominant military force worldwide.” H-Net
"Neufeld focuses on care, which allows women to come to the forefront of a history usually dominated by men. I would recommend this book to specialist and general readers alike interested in British Naval Medicine." British Society for the History of Medicine
"Based on formidable primary research, Early Modern Naval Health Care in England, is a wonderful interpretive essay on an important “back office” function of maritime history. Matthew Neufeld makes the compelling point that the provision of health care was an intricate part of the emergence of modernity, and that Britain’s Royal Navy was a leading light in that regard." Keith Matthews Award jury