Professor Bernard Harris

Bernard Harris

PhD

School of Social Sciences
University of Southampton
Southampton
SO17 1BJ

Position: Professor of the History of Social Policy
Telephone: (023) 8059 2567
Email: B.J.Harris@soton.ac.uk

Biography

Bernard Harris (Professor of the History of Social Policy) studied History at Cambridge University and was awarded a PhD by the University of London for work on the medical inspection and nutrition of schoolchildren in Britain in the first half of the twentieth century. He joined the Division in 1991, having previously taught in the Department of Economic and Social History at Bristol University. He teaches a number of different courses on the history of the British social policy and the welfare state. He has published articles on a wide range of subjects, from the history of human height to the social consequences of unemployment in interwar Britain. His most recent book is “The Origins of the British Welfare State, a history of social welfare provision in England and Wales from 1800 to 1945”, which was published by Palgrave in 2004.

Research interests

Bernard's main interests are in the history of social policy and social welfare, with a particular focus on health and well-being. He has published widely in the area of the history of social policy, including The health of the schoolchild: a history of the school medical service in England and Wales (Buckingham: Open University Press, 1995); Race, science and medicine, 1700-1960 (edited with Waltraud Ernst; London: Routledge, 1999); and The origins of the British welfare state: social welfare in England and Wales, 1800-1945 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004). He is currently conducting research into the history of morbidity (with Martin Gorsky, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and Andrew Hinde, of the University of Southampton), and is working on a collaborative project with Robert Fogel (University of Chicago) and Roderick Floud (London Metropolitan University) on long-term changes in health and welfare in Britain, France and the United States of America since 1700. He is the coeditor (with Paul Bridgen) of Charity and mutual aid in Europe and North America since 1800 (Routledge, 2007).

Other Information

"The history of technophysio evolution in Britain, France and the United States since 1700: a reconstruction". Grant holders: Bernard Harris (University of Southampton) and Roderick Floud (London Metropolitan University). Awarding body: National Institute of Aging, USA, US$10,000, 13 August 2004.

I am also the UK Coordinator for an international seminar programme entitled 'Gender and well-being: interactions between work, family and public policies'. The grant is worth up to €245K and was awarded by COST (European Cooperation in the Field of Scientific and Technical Research) on 15 March 2005. It will fund five international seminars over the period 2005-8.
 
I am a coholder of an ESRC grant for research into the history of morbidity, together with Andrew Hinde (Social Statistics) and Martin Gorsky (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine).  The grant is entitled 'The health and morbidity of friendly society members in the late-nineteenth and twentieth centuries' (Reference RES-062-23-0324) and is worth £200,929.98.
 

Teaching activities

My main teaching duties include the following:

SOCI2010/2021: State, society and welfare in Britain since 1800 (UG)        

SOCI6003: Social Policy Analysis I  (with John Mohan) (PG) 

I am currently supervising or cosupervising three postgraduate research students.

 

Work in progress

I am currently working on a number of projects, including: • Continuation of work on the history of morbidity, with Andy Hinde, Martin Gorsky and Aravinda Guntupalli • Preparation of a paper on ‘Gender and poverty in England and Wales since circa 1800’ for the fourth GWB symposium in Madrid (June 2008) • Completion of a coedited volume (with Lina Galvez and Helena Machado) entitled Gender and wellbeing in Europe: historical and contemporary perspectives (to be published by Ashgate in 2008/9) • Completion of a coauthored study on the history of health and nutrition in Europe and America since 1800 (R. Fogel, R. Floud, B. Harris and S.C. Hong, The changing body: health, nutrition and human development in the western world since 1700, to be published by CUP in 2009)

Selected publications

Books
  Roderick Floud, Robert W. Fogel, Bernard Harris and Sok Chul Hong to be published The changing body: health, nutrition and human development in the western world since 1700. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press., 2010 (in preparation)
 Bernard Harris 2004 The origins of the British welfare state: social welfare in England and Wales 1800-1945. Basingstoke: Palgrave.  On-line abstract, (ISBN: 0333649974)
Cover imageBernard Harris 1995 The Health of the Schoolchild: a History of the School Medical Service in England and Wales, 1908-74. Open University Press.  On-line abstract, (ISBN: 0 335 09 994 7, pp 260)
Edited books and volumes
Cover imageBernard Harris, Lina Galvez and Helena Machado (eds) July 2009 Gender and wellbeing in Europe: historical and contemporary perspectives. Farnham: Ashgate.  On-line abstract, (ISBN: 978-07546-8863-1)
 Bernard Harris and Paul Bridgen (eds) 2007 Charity and mutual aid in Europe and North America since 1800. New York: Routledge.  On-line abstract, (ISBN: 978-0-415-36559-8), (ISSN: 978-0-415-36559-8)
 Waultraud Ernst and Bernard Harris (eds) 1999 Race, science and medicine 1700-1960. London: Routledge.
Chapters in books
Cover imageBernard Harris 2009 Anthropometric history, gender and the measurement of well-being. In Bernard Harris, Lina Galvez and Helena Machado (eds), Gender and wellbeing in Europe: historical and contemporary perspectives (pp. 59-84). Farnham: Ashgate.  On-line abstract, (ISBN: 978-07546-8863-1), (ISSN: 9780754688631)
 Bernard Harris 2009 The development of social policy in England and Wales, 1800-1945. In Hugh Bochel, Catherine Bochel, Robert Page and Robert Sykes (eds), Social policy: themes, issues and debates (pp. 89-109). Harlow: Pearson.  On-line abstract, (ISBN: 978-1-4058-5836-6)
Cover imageBernard Harris, Lina Galvez and Helena Machado 2009 Gender and wellbeing from the historical and contemporary perspective. In Bernard Harris, Lina Galvez and Helena Machado (eds), Gender and wellbeing in Europe: historical and contemporary perspectives (pp. 1-20). Farnham: Ashgate.  On-line abstract, (ISBN: 978-07546-8863-1)
Cover imageBernard Harris, Lina Galvez and Helena Machado 2009 Summary and conclusions Gender and wellbeing in Europe: historical and contemporary perspectives (pp. 267-70). Farnham: Ashgate.  On-line abstract, (ISBN: 978-07546-8863-1), (ISSN: 9780754688631)
 Harris, B 2008 Charity and charitable organisations. In Sterns, P.N. (eds), Oxford Encyclopaedia of the Modern World,. Oxford University Press.
 Bernard Harris 2007 Charity and poor relief in England and Wales, circa 1750-1914 Charity and mutual aid in Europe and North America since 1800 (pp. 19-42). New York: Routledge.  On-line abstract, (ISBN: 978-0-415-36559-8)
 Bernard Harris and Paul Bridgen 2007 Introduction: the "mixed economy of welfare" and the historiography of welfare provision. In Bernard Harris and Paul Bridgen (eds), Charity and mutual aid in Europe and North America since 1800 (pp. 1-18). New York: Routledge.  On-line abstract, (ISBN: 978-0-415-36559-8)
 Martin Gorsky and Bernard Harris 2005 The measurement of morbidity in interwar Britain: evidence from the Hampshire Friendly society. In I Borowy (ed.), Health in interwar Europe. Frankfurt: Peter Lang., (ISBN: 3631519486)
 Bernard Harris 2003 Poverty; history of 3: Poverty and deprivation, 19th and 20th centuries. In D. Loades (ed.), Reader's guide to British history (pp. 1063-5). London: Fitzroy-Dearborn., (ISBN: 1-57958-242-7)
 Bernard Harris 2001 Anthropometry. In C. Blakemore and S. Jennett (eds), h. Oxford: Oxford University Press., (ISBN: 019852403X)
 Bernard Harris 2000 Seebohm Rowntree and the Measurement of Poverty, 1899-1951. In Bradshaw, J.; Sainsbury, R. (eds), Getting the Measure of Poverty: the early legacy of Seebohm Rowntree (pp. 60-84). Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing.  On-line abstract, (ISBN: 0-7546-1289-9)
 Bernard Harris 2000 Height and nutrition. In K Kiple and K C Ornelas (eds), The Cambridge World History of Food (pp. 1427-1438). New York and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cover imageBernard Harris 1999 Pro-alienism, anti-alienism and the medical profession in late-Victorian and Edwardian Britain. In Ernst, W.; Harris, B. (eds), Race, Science and Medicine, 1700-1960 (pp. 189-217). Routledge., (ISBN: 0-415-18152-6)
 Bernard Harris 1998 Gender, height and mortality in England and Wales in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In J Komlos and J Baten (eds), The Biological Standard of Living in Comparative Perspective (pp. 413-48). Stuttgart: Steiner Verlag.
Cover imageRoderick Floud and Bernard Harris 1997 Health, Height and Welfare: Britain 1700-1980. In Steckel, R.H.; Floud, R. (eds), Health and Welfare During Industrialization (pp. 91-126). University of Chicago Press., (ISBN: 0-226-77156-3)
 Bernard Harris 1994 Unemployment and the dole in interwar Britain. In P. Johnson (ed.), Twentieth-century Britain: economic, social and cultural change (pp. 203-220). London: Longman.
 Bernard Harris 1994 The height of schoolchildren in Britain 1900-50. In J Komlos (ed.), Stature, living standards and economic development: essays in anthropometric history (pp. 25-38). Chicago: Chicago University Press.
 Bernard Harris 1991 Government and charity in the distressed mining areas of England and Wales, 1928-30. In J. Barry and C. Jones (eds), Medicine and charity before the welfare state (pp. 207-224). London: Routledge.
 Bernard Harris 1990 Voluntary action and unemployment: charity in the South Wales coalfield between the Wars. In E. Aerts and B. Eichengreen (eds), Unemployment and underemployment in international perspective (pp. 101-110). Leuven: Leuven University Press.
 Bernard Harris 1988 Unemployment, insurance and health in interwar Britain. In B. Eichengreen and T. Hatton (eds), Interwar unemployment in international perspective (pp. 149-183). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Articles in journals
 Bernard Harris 2008 Gender, health and welfare in England and Wales since industrialisation. Research in Economic History, 26, 157-204.  On-line abstract, (ISSN: 0363-3268), Published
 Bernard Harris 2010 The voluntary sector in historical perspective. Voluntary sector review, 1 (1), 25-40.  On-line abstract, (ISSN: 2040-8056 )
 Gorsky, M., Harris, B. and Hinde, A. 2006 Age, sickness and longevity in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: evidence from the Hampshire Friendly Society. Social Science History, 30, 4, 571-600.  On-line abstract, (ISSN: 0145-5532)
 Martin Gorsky, Bernard Harris and Andrew Hinde 2006 Age, Sickness, and Longevity in the Late Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: Evidence from the Hampshire Friendly Society. Social Science History, 30 (4)  On-line abstract  On-line article, (ISSN: 0145-5532), November 2006 (in press)
 Bernard Harris 2005 Letter to the Editor: Health by Association. International Journal of Epidemiology, 34(2), 488-90.  On-line article, (ISSN: 03005771)
 Bernard Harris 2005 Welfare since 1945: rewriting the history of Britain's welfare state. Twentieth Century British History, 16  On-line article, (ISSN: 09552359)
 Bernard Harris 2004 Public health, nutrition and the decline of mortality: the McKeown thesis revisited. Social History of Medicine, 17(3), 379-407.  On-line abstract  On-line article, (ISSN: 0951631X)
Cover imageEdwards, C., Gorsky, M., Harris, B. and Hinde, A. 2003 Sickness, insurance and health: assessing trends in morbidity through friendly society records. Annales de Démographie Historique, 2003, 1, 131-167.  On-line abstract, (ISSN: 2701134358)
Cover imageBernard Harris 2002 Poverty, inequality and health in international perspective. Contemporary British History, 16 (3), 221-230.  On-line article, (ISSN: 13619462)
 Bernard Harris 2001 'The child is father to the man': The relationship between child health and adult mortality in the 19th and 20th centuries. International Journal of Epidemiology, 30(4), 688-696.  On-line abstract  On-line article, (ISSN: 0300-5771)
 Bernard Harris 1999 The social history of health and healing. European History Quarterly, 29(3), 419-24.
 Bernard Harris 1999 Household, family and welfare: past, present and future. Continuity and Change, 14(2), 267-73.
 Bernard Harris 1999 Morbidity and mortality during the health transition: a comment on James C Riley 'Why sickness and death rates do not move parallel to one another over time' Social History of Medicine, 12(1), 125-31.
Cover imageBernard Harris 1997 Growing Taller, Living Longer? Anthropometric History and the Future of Old Age. Ageing and Society, volume 17 issue 5, 491-512.  On-line abstract, (ISSN: 0144-686X)
 Bernard Harris 1997 Anti-alienism, health and social reform in late-Victorian and Edwardian Britain. Patterns of Prejudice, 31 (4), 3-34.
 Bernard Harris 1997 Food in History. European History Quarterly, 27(4), 581-6.
 Roderick Floud and Bernard Harris 1996 Health, height and welfare: Britain 1700-1980. NBER Working Paper Series on Historical Factors in Long-run Growth, Historical Paper 87
 Bernard Harris 1995 Responding to adversity: government-charity relations and the relief of unemployment in interwar Britain. Contemporary Record, 9 (3), 529-561.
 Bernard Harris 1994 Health, height and history: an overview of recent developments in anthropometric history. Social History of Medicine, 7(2), 297-320.
 Bernard Harris 1993 The demographic impact of the First World War: an anthropometric perspective. Social History of Medicine, 6(3), 343-66.
Working papers
 Harris, B., Floud, R., Fogel, R.W. and Hong, S.C. April 2010 Diet, health and work intensity in England and Wales, 1800-1914. NBER Working Series, 15875  On-line article
Web based
 Bernard Harris 2004 Eichholz, Alfred (1869-1933) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.. Oxford: Oxford University Press.  On-line article
Book reviews
 Bernard Harris 2007 Review of Hugh Pemberton, Pat Thane and Noel Whiteside, eds., Britain's pensions crisis: history and policy (OUP/British Academy, 2006) Historical Studies in Industrial Relations, No. 23/24, 271-77., (ISSN: 1362 1572)