Recuperation, rehabilitation and the residential option: the Brentwood Centre for Mothers and Children.

The place of anti-social behaviour in government policy in the United Kingdom is attracting increasing attention. Particularly interesting are residential projects aiming to rehabilitate 'problem families'. Nevertheless, to date, attempts to view these initiatives in historical perspective have been limited.

Knights, knaves, pawns and queens: attitudes to behaviour in postwar Britain.

The choice agenda is currently one of the most prominent in public policy. One of its main architects, Julian Le Grand, has used the metaphors of knights, knaves, pawns and queens to characterise changing attitudes to questions of motivation and behaviour among public servants and service users. He has said, for example, that, in the immediate postwar period, public servants were perceived as public-spirited altruists (or knights), whereas service users were seen as passive (or pawns).

Searching for social capital: historical perspectives on health, poverty and culture.

Social capital has been seen as having a positive effect on health, and the concept of social capital has been viewed as of central importance to debates about healthy, sustainable communities. More generally, behaviour and its relationship with health has become much more central to policy-making, as illustrated in the Choosing Health White Paper (2005), and the concept of social capital has been one influence on the concept of social exclusion. Robert Putnam's arguments, both those expressed in Making Democracy Work (1993) and the revised version seen in Bowling Alone (2000) have been taken up by numerous social scientists and policy-makers.

Tuberculosis, migration, and medical examination: lessons from history.

This article examines policies of health screening with particular reference to the “Australian model”. It details how historical approaches can contribute to an understanding of contemporary public health policy.