History (from Greek - historia, meaning "inquiry, knowledge acquired by

investigation"[2]) is an umbrella term that relates to past events as well as the discovery,
collection, organization, and presentation of information about these events. The term includes
cosmic, geologic, and organic history, but is often generically implied to mean human history.
Scholars who write about history are called historians.
History can also refer to the academic discipline which uses a narrative to examine and analyse a
sequence of past events, and objectively determine the patterns of cause and effect that determine
them.[3][4]
Historians sometimes debate the nature of history and its usefulness by discussing the study of
the discipline as an end in itself and as a way of providing "perspective" on the problems of the
present.[3][5][6][7]
Stories common to a particular culture, but not supported by external sources (such as the tales
surrounding King Arthur) are usually classified as cultural heritage or legends, because they do
not support the "disinterested investigation" required of the discipline of history.[8][9] Events
occurring prior to written record are considered prehistory.
Herodotus, a 5th-century B.C. Greek historian is considered within the Western tradition to be
the "father of history", and, along with his contemporary Thucydides, helped form the
foundations for the modern study of human history. Their work continues to be read today and
the divide between the culture-focused Herodotus and the military-focused Thucydides remains a
point of contention or approach in modern historical writing. In the Eastern tradition, a state
chronicle the Spring and Autumn Annals was known to be compiled from as early as 722 BCE
although only 2nd century BCE texts survived.
Ancient influences have helped spawn variant interpretations of the nature of history which have
evolved over the centuries and continue to change today. The modern study of history is wideranging, and includes the study of specific regions and the study of certain topical or thematical
elements of historical investigation. Often history is taught as part of primary and secondary
education, and the academic study of history is a major discipline in University studies.

Etymology

History by Frederick Dielman (1896)

A derivation from *weid- "know" or "see" is attested as "the reconstructed etymon wid-tor ["one
who knows"] (compare to English wit) a suffixed zero-grade form of the PIE root *weid- 'see'
and so is related to Greek eidnai, to know".[2][10]
Ancient Greek [11] (hstr) means "inquiry","knowledge from inquiry", or "judge". It was
in that sense that Aristotle used the word in his [12] (Per T Za istorai
"Inquiries about Animals"). The ancestor word is attested early on in Homeric Hymns,
Heraclitus, the Athenian ephebes' oath, and in Boiotic inscriptions (in a legal sense, either
"judge" or "witness", or similar).
The word entered the English language in 1390 with the meaning of "relation of incidents,
story". In Middle English, the meaning was "story" in general. The restriction to the meaning
"record of past events" arose in the late 15th century. It was still in the Greek sense that Francis
Bacon used the term in the late 16th century, when he wrote about "Natural History". For him,
historia was "the knowledge of objects determined by space and time", that sort of knowledge
provided by memory (while science was provided by reason, and poetry was provided by
fantasy).
In an expression of the linguistic synthetic vs. analytic/isolating dichotomy, English like Chinese
( vs. ) now designates separate words for human history and storytelling in general. In
modern German, French, and most Germanic and Romance languages, which are solidly
synthetic and highly inflected, the same word is still used to mean both "history" and "story".
The adjective historical is attested from 1661, and historic from 1669.[13]
Historian in the sense of a "researcher of history" is attested from 1531. In all European
languages, the substantive "history" is still used to mean both "what happened with men", and
"the scholarly study of the happened", the latter sense sometimes distinguished with a capital
letter, "History", or the word historiography.[12]

Description

The title page to The Historians' History of the World

Historians write in the context of their own time, and with due regard to the current dominant
ideas of how to interpret the past, and sometimes write to provide lessons for their own society.
In the words of Benedetto Croce, "All history is contemporary history". History is facilitated by
the formation of a 'true discourse of past' through the production of narrative and analysis of past
events relating to the human race.[13] The modern discipline of history is dedicated to the
institutional production of this discourse.
All events that are remembered and preserved in some authentic form constitute the historical
record.[14] The task of historical discourse is to identify the sources which can most usefully
contribute to the production of accurate accounts of past. Therefore, the constitution of the
historian's archive is a result of circumscribing a more general archive by invalidating the usage
of certain texts and documents (by falsifying their claims to represent the 'true past').
The study of history has sometimes been classified as part of the humanities and at other times as
part of the social sciences.[15] It can also be seen as a bridge between those two broad areas,
incorporating methodologies from both. Some individual historians strongly support one or the
other classification.[16] In the 20th century, French historian Fernand Braudel revolutionized the
study of history, by using such outside disciplines as economics, anthropology, and geography in
the study of global history.
Traditionally, historians have recorded events of the past, either in writing or by passing on an
oral tradition, and have attempted to answer historical questions through the study of written
documents and oral accounts. For the beginning, historians have also used such sources as
monuments, inscriptions, and pictures. In general, the sources of historical knowledge can be
separated into three categories: what is written, what is said, and what is physically preserved,

and historians often consult all three.[17] But writing is the marker that separates history from
what comes before.
Archaeology is a discipline that is especially helpful in dealing with buried sites and objects,
which, once unearthed, contribute to the study of history. But archaeology rarely stands alone. It
uses narrative sources to complement its discoveries. However, archaeology is constituted by a
range of methodologies and approaches which are independent from history; that is to say,
archaeology does not "fill the gaps" within textual sources. Indeed, Historical Archaeology is a
specific branch of archaeology, often contrasting its conclusions against those of contemporary
textual sources. For example, Mark Leone, the excavator and interpreter of historical Annapolis,
Maryland, USA has sought to understand the contradiction between textual documents and the
material record, demonstrating the possession of slaves and the inequalities of wealth apparent
via the study of the total historical environment, despite the ideology of "liberty" inherent in
written documents at this time.
There are varieties of ways in which history can be organized, including chronologically,
culturally, territorially, and thematically. These divisions are not mutually exclusive, and
significant overlaps are often present, as in "The International Women's Movement in an Age of
Transition, 18301975." It is possible for historians to concern themselves with both the very
specific and the very general, although the modern trend has been toward specialization. The
area called Big History resists this specialization, and searches for universal patterns or trends.
History has often been studied with some practical or theoretical aim, but also may be studied
out of simple intellectual curiosity.[18]

History and prehistory

Human history
and prehistory

before Homo (Pliocene)

Three-age system prehistory
Stone Age
Lower Paleolithic
Homo, Homo erectus
Middle Paleolithic
early Homo sapiens
Upper Paleolithic
behavioral modernity
Neolithic
civilization

Bronze Age
Near East India Europe China Korea
Iron Age
Bronze Age collapse Ancient Near East
India Europe China Japan Korea Nigeria
Recorded History
Ancient history
Earliest records
Postclassical Era
Modern history
Early Late Contemporary
See also: Modernity and Futurology
Future

Further information: Protohistory

The history of the world is the memory of the past experience of Homo sapiens sapiens around
the world, as that experience has been preserved, largely in written records. By "prehistory",
historians mean the recovery of knowledge of the past in an area where no written records exist,
or where the writing of a culture is not understood. By studying painting, drawings, carvings, and
other artifacts, some information can be recovered even in the absence of a written record. Since
the 20th century, the study of prehistory is considered essential to avoid history's implicit
exclusion of certain civilizations, such as those of Sub-Saharan Africa and pre-Columbian
America. Historians in the West have been criticized for focusing disproportionately on the
Western world.[19] In 1961, British historian E. H. Carr wrote:
The line of demarcation between prehistoric and historical times is crossed when people cease to
live only in the present, and become consciously interested both in their past and in their future.
History begins with the handing down of tradition; and tradition means the carrying of the habits
and lessons of the past into the future. Records of the past begin to be kept for the benefit of
future generations.[20]
This definition includes within the scope of history the strong interests of peoples, such as
Australian Aboriginals and New Zealand Mori in the past, and the oral records maintained and
transmitted to succeeding generations, even before their contact with European civilization.

Historiography
Main article: Historiography
Historiography has a number of related meanings. Firstly, it can refer to how history has been
produced: the story of the development of methodology and practices (for example, the move
from short-term biographical narrative towards long-term thematic analysis). Secondly, it can
refer to what has been produced: a specific body of historical writing (for example, "medieval
historiography during the 1960s" means "Works of medieval history written during the 1960s").
Thirdly, it may refer to why history is produced: the Philosophy of history. As a meta-level
analysis of descriptions of the past, this third conception can relate to the first two in that the
analysis usually focuses on the narratives, interpretations, worldview, use of evidence, or method
of presentation of other historians. Professional historians also debate the question of whether
history can be taught as a single coherent narrative or a series of competing narratives.

Philosophy of history
History's philosophical questions

What is the proper unit for the

study of the human pastthe
individual? The polis? The
civilization? The culture? Or
the nation state?

Are there broad patterns and

progress? Are there cycles? Is
human history random and
devoid of any meaning?

Main article: Philosophy of history

Philosophy of history is a branch of philosophy concerning the eventual significance, if any, of
human history. Furthermore, it speculates as to a possible teleological end to its development
that is, it asks if there is a design, purpose, directive principle, or finality in the processes of
human history. Philosophy of history should not be confused with historiography, which is the
study of history as an academic discipline, and thus concerns its methods and practices, and its
development as a discipline over time. Nor should philosophy of history be confused with the
history of philosophy, which is the study of the development of philosophical ideas through time.

Historical methods
Further information: Historical method

A depiction of the ancient Library of

Alexandria
Historical method basics
The following questions are used by
historians in modern work.
1. When was the source, written
or unwritten, produced (date)?
2. Where was it produced
(localization)?
3. By whom was it produced
(authorship)?
4. From what pre-existing
material was it produced
(analysis)?
5. In what original form was it
produced (integrity)?
6. What is the evidential value of
its contents (credibility)?
The first four are known as higher
criticism; the fifth, lower criticism;
and, together, external criticism. The
sixth and final inquiry about a source

is called internal criticism.

The historical method comprises the techniques and guidelines by which historians use primary
sources and other evidence to research and then to write history.
Herodotus of Halicarnassus (484 BC ca.425 BC)[21] has generally been acclaimed as the "father
of history". However, his contemporary Thucydides (ca. 460 BC ca. 400 BC) is credited with
having first approached history with a well-developed historical method in his work the History
of the Peloponnesian War. Thucydides, unlike Herodotus, regarded history as being the product
of the choices and actions of human beings, and looked at cause and effect, rather than as the
result of divine intervention.[21] In his historical method, Thucydides emphasized chronology, a
neutral point of view, and that the human world was the result of the actions of human beings.
Greek historians also viewed history as cyclical, with events regularly recurring.[22]
There were historical traditions and sophisticated use of historical method in ancient and
medieval China. The groundwork for professional historiography in East Asia was established by
the Han Dynasty court historian known as Sima Qian (14590 BC), author of the Shiji (Records
of the Grand Historian). For the quality of his written work, Sima Qian is posthumously known
as the Father of Chinese Historiography. Chinese historians of subsequent dynastic periods in
China used his Shiji as the official format for historical texts, as well as for biographical
literature.[citation needed]
Saint Augustine was influential in Christian and Western thought at the beginning of the
medieval period. Through the Medieval and Renaissance periods, history was often studied
through a sacred or religious perspective. Around 1800, German philosopher and historian Georg
Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel brought philosophy and a more secular approach in historical study.[18]
In the preface to his book, the Muqaddimah (1377), the Arab historian and early sociologist, Ibn
Khaldun, warned of seven mistakes that he thought that historians regularly committed. In this
criticism, he approached the past as strange and in need of interpretation. The originality of Ibn
Khaldun was to claim that the cultural difference of another age must govern the evaluation of
relevant historical material, to distinguish the principles according to which it might be possible
to attempt the evaluation, and lastly, to feel the need for experience, in addition to rational
principles, in order to assess a culture of the past. Ibn Khaldun often criticized "idle superstition
and uncritical acceptance of historical data." As a result, he introduced a scientific method to the
study of history, and he often referred to it as his "new science".[23] His historical method also
laid the groundwork for the observation of the role of state, communication, propaganda and
systematic bias in history,[24] and he is thus considered to be the "father of historiography"[25][26] or
the "father of the philosophy of history".[27]
In the West historians developed modern methods of historiography in the 17th and 18th
centuries, especially in France and Germany. The 19th-century historian with greatest influence
on methods was Leopold von Ranke in Germany.

In the 20th century, academic historians focused less on epic nationalistic narratives, which often
tended to glorify the nation or great men, to more objective and complex analyses of social and
intellectual forces. A major trend of historical methodology in the 20th century was a tendency to
treat history more as a social science rather than as an art, which traditionally had been the case.
Some of the leading advocates of history as a social science were a diverse collection of scholars
which included Fernand Braudel, E. H. Carr, Fritz Fischer, Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, HansUlrich Wehler, Bruce Trigger, Marc Bloch, Karl Dietrich Bracher, Peter Gay, Robert Fogel,
Lucien Febvre and Lawrence Stone. Many of the advocates of history as a social science were or
are noted for their multi-disciplinary approach. Braudel combined history with geography,
Bracher history with political science, Fogel history with economics, Gay history with
psychology, Trigger history with archaeology while Wehler, Bloch, Fischer, Stone, Febvre and
Le Roy Ladurie have in varying and differing ways amalgamated history with sociology,
geography, anthropology, and economics. More recently, the field of digital history has begun to
address ways of using computer technology to pose new questions to historical data and generate
digital scholarship.
In opposition to the claims of history as a social science, historians such as Hugh Trevor-Roper,
John Lukacs, Donald Creighton, Gertrude Himmelfarb and Gerhard Ritter argued that the key to
the historians' work was the power of the imagination, and hence contended that history should
be understood as an art. French historians associated with the Annales School introduced
quantitative history, using raw data to track the lives of typical individuals, and were prominent
in the establishment of cultural history (cf. histoire des mentalits). Intellectual historians such as
Herbert Butterfield, Ernst Nolte and George Mosse have argued for the significance of ideas in
history. American historians, motivated by the civil rights era, focused on formerly overlooked
ethnic, racial, and socio-economic groups. Another genre of social history to emerge in the postWWII era was Alltagsgeschichte (History of Everyday Life). Scholars such as Martin Broszat,
Ian Kershaw and Detlev Peukert sought to examine what everyday life was like for ordinary
people in 20th-century Germany, especially in the Nazi period.
Marxist historians such as Eric Hobsbawm, E. P. Thompson, Rodney Hilton, Georges Lefebvre,
Eugene D. Genovese, Isaac Deutscher, C. L. R. James, Timothy Mason, Herbert Aptheker, Arno
J. Mayer and Christopher Hill have sought to validate Karl Marx's theories by analyzing history
from a Marxist perspective. In response to the Marxist interpretation of history, historians such as
Franois Furet, Richard Pipes, J. C. D. Clark, Roland Mousnier, Henry Ashby Turner and Robert
Conquest have offered anti-Marxist interpretations of history.[citation needed] Feminist historians such
as Joan Wallach Scott, Claudia Koonz, Natalie Zemon Davis, Sheila Rowbotham, Gisela Bock,
Gerda Lerner, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, and Lynn Hunt have argued for the importance of
studying the experience of women in the past. In recent years, postmodernists have challenged
the validity and need for the study of history on the basis that all history is based on the personal
interpretation of sources. In his 1997 book In Defence of History, Richard J. Evans, a professor
of modern history at Cambridge University, defended the worth of history. Another defence of
history from post-modernist criticism was the Australian historian Keith Windschuttle's 1994
book, The Killing of History.

Areas of study

Particular studies and fields

These are approaches to history; not
listed are histories of other fields, such
as history of science, history of
mathematics and history of
philosophy.

Ancient history : the study

from the beginning of human
history until the Early Middle
Ages.

Atlantic history: the study of

the history of people living on
or near the Atlantic Ocean.

Art History: the study of

changes in and social context
of art.

Big History: study of history

on a large scale across long
time frames and epochs
through a multi-disciplinary
approach.

Chronology: science of
localizing historical events in
time.

Comparative history: historical

analysis of social and cultural
entities not confined to
national boundaries.

Contemporary history: the

study of historical events that
are immediately relevant to the
present time.

Counterfactual history: the

study of historical events as
they might have happened in

different causal circumstances.

Cultural history: the study of

culture in the past.

Digital History: the use of

computing technologies to
produce digital scholarship.

Economic History: the study

of economies in the past.

Futurology: study of the

future: researches the medium
to long-term future of societies
and of the physical world.

Intellectual history: the study

of ideas in the context of the
cultures that produced them
and their development over
time.

Maritime history: the study of

maritime transport and all the
connected subjects.

Modern history : the study of

the Modern Times, the era
after the Middle Ages.

Military History: the study of

warfare and wars in history
and what is sometimes
considered to be a sub-branch
of military history, Naval
History.

Natural history: the study of

the development of the
cosmos, the Earth, biology and
interactions thereof.

Paleography: study of ancient

texts.

People's history: historical

work from the perspective of
common people.

Political history: the study of

politics in the past.

Psychohistory: study of the

psychological motivations of
historical events.

Pseudohistory: study about the

past that falls outside the
domain of mainstream history
(sometimes it is an equivalent
of pseudoscience).

Social History: the study of the

process of social change
throughout history.

Universal history: basic to the

Western tradition of
historiography.

Women's history: the history

of female human beings.
Gender history is related and
covers the perspective of
gender.

World History: the study of

history from a global
perspective.

Periods
Main article: Periodization
Historical study often focuses on events and developments that occur in particular blocks of
time. Historians give these periods of time names in order to allow "organising ideas and

classificatory generalisations" to be used by historians.[28] The names given to a period can vary
with geographical location, as can the dates of the start and end of a particular period. Centuries
and decades are commonly used periods and the time they represent depends on the dating
system used. Most periods are constructed retrospectively and so reflect value judgments made
about the past. The way periods are constructed and the names given to them can affect the way
they are viewed and studied.[29]

Geographical locations
Particular geographical locations can form the basis of historical study, for example, continents,
countries and cities. Understanding why historic events took place is important. To do this,
historians often turn to geography. Weather patterns, the water supply, and the landscape of a
place all affect the lives of the people who live there. For example, to explain why the ancient
Egyptians developed a successful civilization, studying the geography of Egypt is essential.
Egyptian civilization was built on the banks of the Nile River, which flooded each year,
depositing soil on its banks. The rich soil could help farmers grow enough crops to feed the
people in the cities. That meant everyone did not have to farm, so some people could perform
other jobs that helped develop the civilization.
World
Main article: History of the world
World history is the study of major civilizations over the last 3000 years or so. It has led to
highly controversial interpretations by Oswald Spengler and Arnold J. Toynbee, among others.
World history is especially important as a teaching field. It has increasingly entered the
university curriculum in the U.S., in many cases replacing courses in Western Civilization, that
had a focus on Europe and the U.S. World history adds extensive new material on Asia, Africa
and Latin America.
Regions

History of Africa begins with the first emergence of modern human beings on the
continent, continuing into its modern present as a patchwork of diverse and politically
developing nation states.

History of the Americas is the collective history of North and South America, including
Central America and the Caribbean.
o History of North America is the study of the past passed down from generation to
generation on the continent in the Earth's northern and western hemisphere.
o History of Central America is the study of the past passed down from generation
to generation on the continent in the Earth's western hemisphere.

o History of the Caribbean begins with the oldest evidence where 7,000-year-old
remains have been found.
o History of South America is the study of the past passed down from generation to
generation on the continent in the Earth's southern and western hemisphere.

History of Antarctica emerges from early Western theories of a vast continent, known as
Terra Australis, believed to exist in the far south of the globe.

History of Australia start with the documentation of the Makassar trading with
Indigenous Australians on Australia's north coast.

History of New Zealand dates back at least 700 years to when it was discovered and
settled by Polynesians, who developed a distinct Mori culture centred on kinship links
and land.

History of the Pacific Islands covers the history of the islands in the Pacific Ocean.

History of Eurasia is the collective history of several distinct peripheral coastal regions:
the Middle East, South Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Europe, linked by the interior
mass of the Eurasian steppe of Central Asia and Eastern Europe.
o History of Europe describes the passage of time from humans inhabiting the
European continent to the present day.
o History of Asia can be seen as the collective history of several distinct peripheral
coastal regions, East Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East linked by the interior
mass of the Eurasian steppe.

History of East Asia is the study of the past passed down from generation
to generation in East Asia.

History of the Middle East begins with the earliest civilizations in the
region now known as the Middle East that were established around 3000
BC, in Mesopotamia (Iraq).

History of South Asia is the study of the past passed down from generation
to generation in the Sub-Himalayan region.

History of Southeast Asia has been characterized as interaction between

regional players and foreign powers.

Military history
Main article: Military history

Military history concerns warfare, strategies, battles, weapons, and the psychology of combat.
The "new military history" since the 1970s has been concerned with soldiers more than generals,
with psychology more than tactics, and with the broader impact of warfare on society and
culture.[30]

History of religion
Main article: Religious history
The history of religion has been a main theme for both secular and religious historians for
centuries, and continues to be taught in seminaries and academe. Leading journals include
Church History, Catholic Historical Review, and History of Religions. Topics range widely from
political and cultural and artistic dimensions, to theology and liturgy.[31] Every major country is
covered,[32] and most smaller ones as well.

Social history
Main article: Social history
Social history, sometimes called the new social history, is the field that includes history of
ordinary people and their strategies and institutions for coping with life.[33] In its "golden age" it
was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in
history departments. In two decades from 1975 to 1995, the proportion of professors of history in
American universities identifying with social history rose from 31% to 41%, while the
proportion of political historians fell from 40% to 30%.[34] In the history departments of British
universities in 2007, of the 5723 faculty members, 1644 (29%) identified themselves with social
history while political history came next with 1425 (25%).[35] The "old" social history before the
1960s was a hodgepodge of topics without a central theme, and it often included political
movements, like Populism, that were "social" in the sense of being outside the elite system.
Social history was contrasted with political history, intellectual history and the history of great
men. English historian G. M. Trevelyan saw it as the bridging point between economic and
political history, reflecting that, "Without social history, economic history is barren and political
history unintelligible."[36] While the field has often been viewed negatively as history with the
politics left out, it has also been defended as "history with the people put back in."[37]
Subfields
The chief subfields of social history include:

Demographic
history

Family
history

Black history

Labor
history

History of

education

Rural history

Ethnic history

Urban
history

Cultural history
Main article: Cultural history
Cultural history replaced social history as the dominant form in the 1980s and 1990s. It typically
combines the approaches of anthropology and history to look at language, popular cultural
traditions and cultural interpretations of historical experience. It examines the records and
narrative descriptions of past knowledge, customs, and arts of a group of people. How peoples
constructed their memory of the past is a major topic. Cultural history includes the study of art in
society as well is the study of images and human visual production (iconography).[38]

Diplomatic history
Main article: Diplomatic history
Diplomatic history, sometimes referred to as "Rankian History"[39] in honor of Leopold von
Ranke, focuses on politics, politicians and other high rulers and views them as being the driving
force of continuity and change in history. This type of political history is the study of the conduct
of international relations between states or across state boundaries over time. This is the most
common form of history and is often the classical and popular belief of what history should be.

Economic history
Main article: Economic history
Although economic history has been well established since the late 19th century, in recent years
academic studies have shifted more and more toward economics departments and away from
traditional history departments.[40]

Environmental history
Main article: Environmental history
Environmental history is a new field that emerged in the 1980s to look at the history of the
environment, especially in the long run, and the impact of human activities upon it.[41]

World history

Main article: World history

World history is primarily a teaching field, rather than a research field. It gained popularity in the
United States,[42] Japan[43] and other countries after the 1980s with the realization that students
need a broader exposure to the world as globalization proceeds.
The World History Association publishes the Journal of World History every quarter since 1990.
[44]
The H-World discussion list[45] serves as a network of communication among practitioners of
world history, with discussions among scholars, announcements, syllabi, bibliographies and book
reviews.

People's history
Main article: People's history
A people's history is a type of historical work which attempts to account for historical events
from the perspective of common people. A people's history is the history of the world that is the
story of mass movements and of the outsiders. Individuals or groups not included in the past in
other type of writing about history are the primary focus, which includes the disenfranchised, the
oppressed, the poor, the nonconformists, and the otherwise forgotten people. This history also
usually focuses on events occurring in the fullness of time, or when an overwhelming wave of
smaller events cause certain developments to occur.

Historiometry
Main article: Historiometry
Historiometry is a historical study of human progress or individual personal characteristics, by
using statistics to analyze references to eminent persons, their statements, behavior and
discoveries in relatively neutral texts.

Gender history
Main article: Gender history
Gender history is a sub-field of History and Gender studies, which looks at the past from the
perspective of gender. It is in many ways, an outgrowth of women's history. Despite its relatively
short life, Gender History (and its forerunner Women's History) has had a rather significant effect
on the general study of history. Since the 1960s, when the initially small field first achieved a
measure of acceptance, it has gone through a number of different phases, each with its own
challenges and outcomes. Although some of the changes to the study of history have been quite
obvious, such as increased numbers of books on famous women or simply the admission of
greater numbers of women into the historical profession, other influences are more subtle.

Public history

Main article: Public history

Public history describes the broad range of activities undertaken by people with some training in
the discipline of history who are generally working outside of specialized academic settings.
Public history practice has quite deep roots in the areas of historic preservation, archival science,
oral history, museum curatorship, and other related fields. The term itself began to be used in the
U.S. and Canada in the late 1970s, and the field has become increasingly professionalized since
that time. Some of the most common settings for public history are museums, historic homes and
historic sites, parks, battlefields, archives, film and television companies, and all levels of
government.

Historians
Main article: List of historians
Professional and amateur historians discover, collect, organize, and present information about
past events. In lists of historians, historians can be grouped by order of the historical period in
which they were writing, which is not necessarily the same as the period in which they
specialized. Chroniclers and annalists, though they are not historians in the true sense, are also
frequently included.

The judgement of history

Since the 20th century, Western historians have disavowed the aspiration to provide the
"judgement of history."[46] The goals of historical judgements or interpretations are separate to
those of legal judgements, that need to be formulated quickly after the events and be final.[47] A
related issue to that of the judgement of history is that of collective memory.
See also: Ash heap of history

Pseudohistory
Main article: Pseudohistory
Pseudohistory is a term applied to texts which purport to be historical in nature but which depart
from standard historiographical conventions in a way which undermines their conclusions.
Closely related to deceptive historical revisionsm, works which draw controversial conclusions
from new, speculative, or disputed historical evidence, particularly in the fields of national,
political, military, and religious affairs, are often rejected as pseudohistory.

Teaching history
From the origins of national school systems in the 19th century, the teaching of history to
promote national sentiment has been a high priority. In the United States after World War I, a

strong movement emerged at the university level to teach courses in Western Civilization, so as
to give students a common heritage with Europe. In the U.S. after 1980 attention increasingly
moved toward teaching world history or requiring students to take courses in non-western
cultures, to prepare students for life in a globalized economy.[48]
At the university level, historians debate the question of whether history belongs more to social
science or to the humanities. Many view the field from both perspectives.
The teaching of history in French schools was influenced by the Nouvelle histoire as
disseminated after the 1960s by Cahiers pdagogiques and Enseignement and other journals for
teachers. Also influential was the Institut national de recherche et de documentation
pdagogique, (INRDP). Joseph Leif, the Inspector-general of teacher training, said pupils
children should learn about historians approaches as well as facts and dates. Louis Franois,
Dean of the History/Geography group in the Inspectorate of National Education advised that
teachers should provide historic documents and promote "active methods" which would give
pupils "the immense happiness of discovery." Proponents said it was a reaction against the
memorization of names and dates that characterized teaching and left the students bored.
Traditionalists protested loudly it was a postmodern innovation that threatened to leave the youth
ignorant of French patriotism and national identity.[49]

Bias in school teaching

In most countries history textbook are tools to foster nationalism and patriotism, and give
students the official line about national enemies.[50]
In many countries history textbooks are sponsored by the national government and are written to
put the national heritage in the most favorable light. For example, in Japan, mention of the
Nanking Massacre has been removed from textbooks and the entire World War II is given
cursory treatment. Other countries have complained.[51] It was standard policy in communist
countries to present only a rigid Marxist historiography.[52][53]
Academic historians have often fought against the politicization of the textbooks, sometimes
with success.[54][55]
In 21st-century Germany, the history curriculum is controlled by the 16 states, and is
characterized not by superpatriotism but rather by an "almost pacifistic and deliberately
unpatriotic undertone" and reflects "principles formulated by international organizations such as
UNESCO or the Council of Europe, thus oriented towards human rights, democracy and peace."
The result is that "German textbooks usually downplay national pride and ambitions and aim to
develop an understanding of citizenship centred on democracy, progress, human rights, peace,
tolerance and Europeanness."[56]

Public health
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

Newspaper headlines from around the world about polio vaccine tests (13 April
1955)

Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health
through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private,
communities and individuals."[1] It is concerned with threats to health based on population health
analysis. The population in question can be as small as a handful of people, or as large as all the
inhabitants of several continents (for instance, in the case of a pandemic). The dimensions of
health can encompass "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely
the absence of disease or infirmity", as defined by the United Nations' World Health
Organization.[2] Public health incorporates the interdisciplinary approaches of epidemiology,
biostatistics and health services. Environmental health, community health, behavioral health,
health economics, public policy, insurance medicine and occupational health (respectively
occupational medicine) are other important subfields.
The focus of public health intervention is to improve health and quality of life through the
prevention and treatment of disease and other physical and mental health conditions, through
surveillance of cases and health indicators, and through the promotion of healthy behaviors.
Promotion of hand washing and breastfeeding, delivery of vaccinations, and distribution of
condoms to control the spread of sexually transmitted diseases are examples of common public
health measures.

Modern public health practice requires multidisciplinary teams of professionals including

physicians specializing in public health/community medicine/infectious disease, epidemiologists,
biostatisticians, public health nurses, medical microbiologists, environmental health officers /
public health inspectors, pharmacists, dental hygienists, dietitians and nutritionists, veterinarians,
public health engineers, public health lawyers, sociologists, community development workers,
communications experts, and others.[3]
Contents

1 Objectives

2 History

2.1 Early public health interventions

2.2 Modern public health

2.2.1 Disease control

2.2.2 Public Health 2.0

3 Education and training

o

3.1 Schools of public health

3.2 Degrees in public health

4 Public health programs

o

4.1 Applications in healthcare

4.2 Implementing effective improvement strategies

5 See also

6 References

7 Bibliography

8 External links

Objectives

The focus of a public health intervention is to prevent and manage diseases, injuries and other
health conditions through surveillance of cases and the promotion of healthy behaviors,
communities and environments. Many diseases are preventable through simple, non-medical

methods. For example, research has shown that the simple act of hand washing with soap can
prevent many contagious diseases.[4] In other cases, treating a disease or controlling a pathogen
can be vital to preventing its spread to others, such as during an outbreak of infectious disease, or
contamination of food or water supplies. Public health communications programs, vaccination
programs, and distribution of condoms are examples of common public health measures.
Measures such as these have contributed greatly to the health of populations and increases in life
expectancy.
Public health plays an important role in disease prevention efforts in both the developing world
and in developed countries, through local health systems and non-governmental organizations.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is the international agency that coordinates and acts on
global public health issues. Most countries have their own government public health agencies,
sometimes known as ministries of health, to respond to domestic health issues. For example in
the United States, the front line of public health initiatives are state and local health departments.
The United States Public Health Service (PHS), led by the Surgeon General of the United States,
and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, headquartered in Atlanta, are involved with
several international health activities, in addition to their national duties. In Canada, the Public
Health Agency of Canada is the national agency responsible for public health, emergency
preparedness and response, and infectious and chronic disease control and prevention. The
Public health system in India is managed by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare of the
government of India with state owned health care facilities.
There is a vast discrepancy in access to health care and public health initiatives between
developed nations and developing nations. In the developing world, public health infrastructures
are still forming. There may not be enough trained health workers or monetary resources to
provide even a basic level of medical care and disease prevention.[5] As a result, a large majority
of disease and mortality in the developing world results from and contributes to extreme poverty.
For example, many African governments spend less than US$10 per person per year on health
care, while, in the United States, the federal government spent approximately US$4,500 per
capita in 2000. However, expenditures on health care should not be confused with spending on
public health. Public health measures may not generally be considered "health care" in the
strictest sense. For example, mandating the use of seat belts in cars can save countless lives and
contribute to the health of a population, but typically money spent enforcing this rule would not
count as money spent on health care.
History

In some ways, public health is a modern concept of human development in science, although it
has roots in antiquity. From the beginnings of human civilization, it was recognized that polluted
water and lack of proper waste disposal spread communicable diseases (theory of miasma). Early
religions attempted to regulate behavior that specifically related to health, from types of food

eaten, to regulating certain indulgent behaviors, such as drinking alcohol or sexual relations. The
establishment of governments placed responsibility on leaders to develop public health policies
and programs in order to gain some understanding of the causes of disease and thus ensure social
stability prosperity, and maintain order.
The term "healthy city" used by today's public health advocates reflects this ongoing challenge to
collective physical well-being that results from crowded conditions and urbanization.
Early public health interventions

Public health nursing made available through child welfare services in U.S. (c.
1930s)

By Roman times, it was well understood that proper diversion of human waste was a necessary
tenet of public health in urban areas. The ancient Chinese medical doctors developed the practice
of variolation following a smallpox epidemic around 1000 BC. An individual without the disease
could gain some measure of immunity against it by inhaling the dried crusts that formed around
lesions of infected individuals. Also, children were protected by inoculating a scratch on their
forearms with the pus from a lesion. This practice was not documented in the West until the
early-18th century, and was used on a very limited basis. The practice of vaccination did not
become prevalent until the 1820s, following the work of Edward Jenner to treat smallpox.
During the 14th century Black Death in Europe, it was believed that removing bodies of the dead
would further prevent the spread of the bacterial infection. This did little to stem the plague,
however, which was most likely spread by rodent-borne fleas. Burning parts of cities resulted in
much greater benefit, since it destroyed the rodent infestations[citation needed]. The development of
quarantine in the medieval period helped mitigate the effects of other infectious diseases.
However, according to Michel Foucault, the plague model of governmentality was later
controverted by the cholera model. A Cholera pandemic devastated Europe between 1829 and
1851, and was first fought by the use of what Foucault called "social medicine", which focused
on flux, circulation of air, location of cemeteries, etc. All those concerns, born of the miasma
theory of disease, were mixed with urbanistic concerns for the management of populations,

which Foucault designated as the concept of "biopower". The German conceptualized this in the
Polizeiwissenschaft ("Police science").
The science of epidemiology was founded by John Snow's identification of a polluted public
water well as the source of an 1854 cholera outbreak in London. Dr. Snow believed in the germ
theory of disease as opposed to the prevailing miasma theory. Although miasma theory correctly
teaches that disease is a result of poor sanitation, it was based upon the prevailing theory of
spontaneous generation. Germ theory developed slowly: despite Anton van Leeuwenhoek's
observations of Microorganisms, (which are now known to cause many of the most common
infectious diseases) in the year 1680, the modern era of public health did not begin until the
1880s, with Louis Pasteur's germ theory and production of artificial vaccines.
Other public health interventions include latrinization, the building of sewers, the regular
collection of garbage followed by incineration or disposal in a landfill, providing clean water and
draining standing water to prevent the breeding of mosquitoes. This contribution was made by
Edwin Chadwick in 1843 who published a report on the sanitation of the working class
population in Great Britain at the time. So began the inception of the modern public health. The
industrial revolution had initially caused the spread of disease through large conurbations around
workhouses and factories. These settlements were cramped and primitive and there was no
organised sanitation. Disease was inevitable and its incubation in these areas was encouraged by
the poor lifestyle of the inhabitants.
Modern public health

In the U.S., the role of public health nurse began in Los Angeles in 1898, by 1924 there were
12,000 public health nurses, half of them in the 100 largest cities. Their average annual salary in
larger cities was $1390 In addition, there were thousands of nurses employed by private agencies
handling similar work. Public health nurses supervised health issues in the public and parochial
schools, to prenatal and infant care, handled communicable diseases and tuberculosis and dealt
with an aerial diseases.[6]
Disease control

With the onset of the epidemiological transition and as the prevalence of infectious diseases
decreased through the 20th century, public health began to put more focus on chronic diseases
such as cancer and heart disease. Previous efforts in many developed countries had already led to
dramatic reductions in the infant mortality rate using preventative methods. For instance in the
United States, public health worker Dr. Sara Josephine Baker established many programs to help
the poor in New York City keep their infants healthy, leading teams of nurses into the crowded
neighborhoods of Hell's Kitchen and teaching mothers how to dress, feed, and bathe their babies.

During the 20th century and early in the next, the dramatic increase in average life span is widely
credited to public health achievements, such as vaccination programs and control of many
infectious diseases including polio, diphtheria, yellow fever and smallpox; effective health and
safety policies such as road traffic safety and occupational safety; improved family planning;
tobacco control measures; and programs designed to decrease non-communicable diseases by
acting on known risk factors such as a person's background, lifestyle and environment. One of
the major sources of the increase in average life span in the early 20th century was the decline in
the "urban penalty" brought on by improvements in sanitation. These improvements included
chlorination of drinking water, filtration and sewage treatment which led to the decline in deaths
caused by infectious waterborne diseases such as cholera and intestinal diseases. In Cutler and
Miller's, "The Role of Public Health Improvements in Health Advances", they display evidence
of the decline in typhoid fever deaths in Chicago, Baltimore, Cincinnati, and Cleveland after
these American cities adopted chlorination, filtration, or a sewage improvement.[7]

Emergency Response Team in Burma in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis

Meanwhile, large parts of the developing world remained plagued by largely

preventable/treatable infectious diseases and poor maternal and child health outcomes,
exacerbated by malnutrition and poverty. The WHO reports that a lack of exclusive breastfeeding
during the first six months of life contributes to over a million avoidable child deaths each year.[8]
Intermittent preventive therapy aimed at treating and preventing malaria episodes among
pregnant women and young children is one public health measure in endemic countries.
Front-page headlines continue to present society with public health issues on a daily basis:
emerging infectious diseases such as SARS, rapidly making its way from China (see Public
health in China) to Canada, the United States and other geographically distant countries;
reducing inequities in health care access through publicly funded health insurance programs; the
HIV/AIDS pandemic and its spread from certain high-risk groups to the general population in
many countries, such as in South Africa; the increase of childhood obesity and the concomitant
increase in type II diabetes among children; the social, economic and health impacts of
adolescent pregnancy; and the ongoing public health challenges related to natural disasters such

as the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, 2005's Hurricane Katrina in the United States and the 2010
Haiti earthquake.
Since the 1980s, the growing field of population health has broadened the focus of public health
from individual behaviors and risk factors to population-level issues such as inequality, poverty,
and education. Modern public health is often concerned with addressing determinants of health
across a population. There is a recognition that our health is affected by many factors including
where we live, genetics, our income, our educational status and our social relationships - these
are known as "social determinants of health." A social gradient in health runs through society,
with those that are poorest generally suffering the worst health. However even those in the
middle classes will generally have worse health outcomes than those of a higher social stratum.[9]
The new public health seeks to address these health inequalities by advocating for populationbased policies that improve health in an equitable manner.
Public Health 2.0

Public Health 2.0 is the term given to a movement within public health that aims to make the
field more accessible to the general public and more user-driven. There are three senses in which
the term "Public Health 2.0" is used. In the first sense, "Public Health 2.0" is similar to the term
"Health 2.0" and is used to describe the ways in which traditional public health practitioners and
institutions are reaching out (or could reach out) to the public through social media and health
blogs.[10][11] In the second sense, "Public Health 2.0" is used to describe public health research that
uses data gathered from social networking sites, search engine queries, cell phones, or other
technologies.[12] In the third sense, "Public Health 2.0" is used to describe public health activities
that are completely user-driven.[13] An example this type of Public Health 2.0 is the collection and
sharing of information about environmental radiation levels following the March 2011 tsunami
in Japan.[14] In all cases, Public Health 2.0 draws on ideas from Web 2.0, such as crowdsourcing,
information sharing, and user-centred design.[15]
Education and training

Education and training of public health professionals is available throughout the world in
Medical Schools, Veterinary Schools, Schools of Nursing, Schools of Public Health, and Schools
of Public Affairs. The training typically requires a university degree with a focus on core
disciplines of biostatistics, epidemiology, health services administration, health policy, health
education, behavioral science and environmental health.[16][17]
Schools of public health

In the United States, the Welch-Rose Report of 1915[18] has been viewed as the basis for the
critical movement in the history of the institutional schism between public health and medicine
because it led to the establishment of schools of public health supported by the Rockefeller

Foundation.[19] The report was authored by William Welch, founding dean of the Johns Hopkins
Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Wycliffe Rose of the Rockefeller Foundation. The
report focused more on research than practical education.[19][20] Some have blamed the
Rockefeller Foundation's 1916 decision to support the establishment of schools of public health
for creating the schism between public health and medicine and legitimizing the rift between
medicine's laboratory investigation of the mechanisms of disease and public health's nonclinical
concern with environmental and social influences on health and wellness.[19][21]
Even though schools of public health had already been established in Canada, Europe and North
Africa, the United States had still maintained the traditional system of housing faculties of public
health within their medical institutions. A $25,000 donation from businessman Samuel Zemurray
instituted the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at Tulane University in 1912.[22][23]
However, the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health became the first independent,
degree-granting institution for research and training in public health, and the largest public health
training facility in the United States,[24][25][26][27] when it was founded in 1916. By 1922, schools of
public health were established at Columbia, Harvard and Yale on the Hopkins model. By 1999
there were twenty nine schools of public health in the US, enrolling around fifteen thousand
students.[16][19]
Over the years, the types of students and training provided have also changed. In the beginning,
students who enrolled in public health schools typically had already obtained a medical degree;
public health school training was largely a second degree for medical professionals. However, in
1978, 69% of American students enrolled in public health schools had only a bachelor's degree.
[16]

Degrees in public health

Main article: Professional degrees of public health

Schools of public health offer a variety of degrees which generally fall into two categories:
professional or academic.[28] The two major postgraduate degrees are the Master of Public Health
(M.P.H.) or the Master of Science in Public Health (MSPH). Doctoral studies in this field include
Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in a subspeciality of greater
Public Health disciplines. DrPH is regarded as a professional leadership degree and Ph.D. as
more of an academic degree.
Professional degrees are oriented towards practice in public health settings. The Master of Public
Health, Doctor of Public Health, Doctor of Health Science (DHSc) and the Master of Health
Care Administration are examples of degrees which are geared towards people who want careers
as practitioners of public health in health departments, managed care and community-based
organizations, hospitals and consulting firms among others. Master of Public Health degrees
broadly fall into two categories, those that put more emphasis on an understanding of

epidemiology and statistics as the scientific basis of public health practice and those that include
a more eclectic range of methodologies. A Master of Science of Public Health is similar to an
MPH but is considered an academic degree (as opposed to a professional degree) and places
more emphasis on quantitative methods and research. The same distinction can be made between
the DrPH and the DHSc. The DrPH is considered a professional degree and the DHSc is an
academic degree.[citation needed]
Academic degrees are more oriented towards those with interests in the scientific basis of public
health and preventive medicine who wish to pursue careers in research, university teaching in
graduate programs, policy analysis and development, and other high-level public health
positions. Examples of academic degrees are the Master of Science, Doctor of Philosophy,
Doctor of Science (ScD), and Doctor of Health Science (DHSc). The doctoral programs are
distinct from the MPH and other professional programs by the addition of advanced coursework
and the nature and scope of a dissertation research project.
In the United States, the Association of Schools of Public Health[29] represents Council on
Education for Public Health (CEPH) accredited schools of public health.[30] Delta Omega is the
honor society for graduate studies in public health. The society was founded in 1924 at the Johns
Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. Currently, there are approximately 68 chapters
throughout the United States and Puerto Rico.[31]
Public health programs

Today, most governments recognize the importance of public health programs in reducing the
incidence disease, disability, and the effects of aging and other physical and mental health
conditions, although public health generally receives significantly less government funding
compared with medicine.[32] In recent years, public health programs providing vaccinations have
made incredible strides in promoting health, including the eradication of smallpox, a disease that
plagued humanity for thousands of years.
The World Health Organization (WHO) identifies core functions of public health programs
including:[33]

providing leadership on matters critical to health and engaging in

partnerships where joint action is needed;

shaping a research agenda and stimulating the generation, translation and

dissemination of valuable knowledge;

setting norms and standards and promoting and monitoring their

implementation;

articulating ethical and evidence-based policy options;

monitoring the health situation and assessing health trends.

In particular, public health surveillance programs can:[34]

serve as an early warning system for impending public health emergencies;

document the impact of an intervention, or track progress towards specified

goals; and

monitor and clarify the epidemiology of health problems, allow priorities to be

set, and inform health policy and strategies.

diagnose, investigate, and monitor health problems and health hazards of the
community

Public health surveillance has led to the identification and prioritization of many public health
issues facing the world today, including HIV/AIDS, diabetes, waterborne diseases, zoonotic
diseases, and antibiotic resistance leading to the reemergence of infectious diseases such as
tuberculosis. Antibiotic resistance, also known as drug resistance, was the theme of World Health
Day 2011. Although the prioritization of pressing public health issues is important, Laurie
Garrett argues that there are following consequences.[35] When foreign aid is funneled into
disease-specific programs, the importance of public health in general is disregarded. This public
health problem of stovepiping is thought to create a lack of funds to combat other existing
diseases in a given country.
For example, the WHO reports that at least 220 million people worldwide suffer from diabetes.
Its incidence is increasing rapidly, and it is projected that the number of diabetes deaths will
double by the year 2030.[36] In a June 2010 editorial in the medical journal The Lancet, the
authors opined that "The fact that type 2 diabetes, a largely preventable disorder, has reached
epidemic proportion is a public health humiliation."[37] The risk of type 2 diabetes is closely
linked with the growing problem of obesity. The WHOs latest estimates highlighted that
globally approximately 1.5 billion adults were overweight in 2008, and nearly 43 million
children under the age of five were overweight in 2010.[38] The United States is the leading
country with 30.6% of its population being obese. Mexico follows behind with 24.2% and the
United Kingdom with 23%. Once considered a problem in high-income countries, it is now on
the rise in low-income countries, especially in urban settings. Many public health programs are
increasingly dedicating attention and resources to the issue of obesity, with objectives to address
the underlying causes including healthy diet and physical exercise.
Some programs and policies associated with public health promotion and prevention can be
controversial. One such example is programs focusing on the prevention of HIV transmission
through safe sex campaigns and needle-exchange programmes. Another is the control of tobacco
smoking. Changing smoking behavior requires long term strategies, unlike the fight against

communicable diseases which usually takes a shorter period for effects to be observed. Many
nations have implemented major initiatives to cut smoking, such as increased taxation and bans
on smoking in some or all public places. Proponents argue by presenting evidence that smoking
is one of the major killers, and that therefore governments have a duty to reduce the death rate,
both through limiting passive (second-hand) smoking and by providing fewer opportunities for
people to smoke. Opponents say that this undermines individual freedom and personal
responsibility, and worry that the state may be emboldened to remove more and more choice in
the name of better population health overall.
Simultaneously, while communicable diseases have historically ranged uppermost as a global
health priority, non-communicable diseases and the underlying behavior-related risk factors have
been at the bottom. This is changing however, as illustrated by the United Nations hosting its
first General Assembly Special Summit on the issue of non-communicable diseases in September
2011.[39]
Many health problems are due to maladaptive personal behaviors. From an evolutionary
psychology perspective they can classified as overconsumption of evolutionary novel substances
that are harmful but strongly activates evolutionarily old reward systems (drugs, tobacco,
alcohol, and refined salt, fat, and carbohydrates); overconsumption of evolutionary novel
technologies with harmful side effects such as modern transportation causing reduced physical
activity; and underconsumption of evolutionary novel technologies that are beneficial but have
no intrinsic motivation (condoms, contraception, soap, bednets, toilets, and gas stoves instead of
wood burning). Research have found that behavior is more effectively changed by taking
evolutionary motivations into consideration instead of only presenting information about health
effects. Thus, increased use of soap and handwashing in order to prevent diarrhea is much more
effectively promoted if associating lack of use with the emotion of disgust. Disgust is an
evolutionary old system for avoiding contact with substances spreading infectious diseases and
other harmful behavior. Examples include showing films of how disgusting fecal matter
contaminates food which are then eaten or using messages such as "Soap it off or eat it later".
The marketing industry has long known the importance of associating products with high status
and attractiveness to others. Conversely, it has been argued that emphasizing the harmful and
undesirable effects of tobacco smoking on other persons and imposing smoking bans in public
places have been particularly effective in reducing tobacco smoking.[40]
Applications in healthcare

As well as seeking to improve population health through the implementation of specific

population-level interventions, public health contributes to medical care by identifying and
assessing population needs for health care services, including:[41][42][43][44]

Assessing current services and evaluating whether they are meeting the
objectives of the health care system

Ascertaining requirements as expressed by health professionals, the public

and other stakeholders

Identifying the most appropriate interventions

Considering the effect on resources for proposed interventions and assessing

their cost-effectiveness

Supporting decision making in health care and planning health services

including any necessary changes.

Informing, educating, and empowering people about health issues

Implementing effective improvement strategies

To improve public health, one important strategy is to promote modern medicine and scientific
neutrality to drive the public health policy and campaign, which is recommended by Armanda
Solorzana, through a case study of the Rockefeller Foundation's hookworm campaign in Mexico
in the 1920s. Soloranza argues that public health policy can't concern only politics or economics.
Political concerns can lead government officials to hide the real numbers of people affected by
disease in their regions, such as upcoming elections. Therefore, scientific neutrality in making
public health policy is critical; it can ensure treatment needs are met regardless of political and
economic conditions.[45]
The history of public health care clearly shows the global effort to improve health care for all.
However, in modern day medicine, real, measurable change has not been clearly seen, and critics
argue that this lack of improvement is due to ineffective methods that are being implemented. As
argued by Paul E. Farmer, structural interventions could possibly have a large impact, and yet
there are numerous problems as to why this strategy has yet to be incorporated into the health
system. One of the main reasons that he suggests could be the fact that physicians are not
properly trained to carry out structural interventions, meaning that the ground level health care
professionals cannot implement these improvements. While structural interventions can not be
the only area for improvement, the lack of coordination between socioeconomic factors and
health care for the poor could be counterproductive, and end up causing greater inequity between
the health care services received by the rich and by the poor. Unless health care is no longer
treated as a commodity, global public health can ultimately not be achieved. This being said,
without changing the way in which health care is delivered to those who have less access to it,
the universal goal of public health care cannot be achieved.[46]