Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Delivered a day after Britain's National Health Service (NHS) reached its 75th year since its opening on the Appointed Day of 5 July 1948, the Pimlott Lecture for 2023 explored the culture of NHS anniversary-making. What can the marking of these anniversaries tell us about changing attitudes towards the service, and indeed, the British state? Here, examining evidence from the media, government archives, and Mass Observation, we argue that NHS anniversaries have long functioned as points of reflection but that their role as moments of national celebration and even communion has come to the fore only recently and culminated in the apparent 'anniversary fever' of 2018. We will explore the reasons behind the growing public fervour, what it can tell us, and the lessons offered by our work on this (still) best-loved of British institutions for historians working on highly politicized objects in 'fevered' times.
Source: Modern British history.
DOI: 10.1093/tcbh/hwae066
Authors: Roberta Bivins, Mathew Thomson
Institution: University of Warwick
Language: English
Subfield: General Health Professions
Field: Health Professions
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $4,043
Funder: Wellcome Trust
OpenAlex ID: W4406208418