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.

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9783030444341

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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)

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)

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)

Author Information

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. 

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