The aim of this Option paper is to deepen understanding of the complex and evolving relationship between warfare and medicine since 1815. This was a period of great change in the scale and methods of waging war, and of dramatic developments in the provision of healthcare and military medicine.
We look especially at war’s impact on medical innovation and professional specialisation, as well as at medicine’s role in shaping modern forms of warfare. We explore the changing ways in which casualties have been perceived, understood, and treated, medicine’s contribution to fighting efficiency, discipline, and morale, and resonant debates about humanitarianism, medical ethics, psychological injury and state responsibility for the welfare of service personnel and disabled veterans. Throughout, we consider these features against social and cultural contexts of the period and arguments and theories from recent scholarship.
The paper takes the form of eight sessions:
- 1815-1914: War, Disease, Reform
- Manpower and Discipline
- 1914-1918: Challenges, Solutions, Innovations
- Humanitarianism and Voluntary Aid
- 1919-1945: Challenges, Solutions, Specialisations
- Psychological Casualties
- Medicine and Warfare since 1945: Old Challenges, Old Solutions?
- Welfare and Disability
