Main description:

Stimulated by the development of childhood studies and the social history of medicine, this book lays out the historical circumstances that led to the medicalization of childhood in Greece from the end of the nineteenth century until World War Two.
For this span of fifty years, the authors explore how the national question was bound up with concerns raised about the health of children. They also investigate the various connotations of child health and maternity care in the context of liberal and authoritarian governments, as well as the wider social and cultural changes that took place in this period. Drawing on a wide array of primary and secondary sources, the authors look into the role of doctors, social thinkers and civil servants in the shaping of health policy; the impact of the medical paradigm from Western Europe; and the gradual professionalization of health care in Greece.
Theodorou and Karakatsani describe an increasing intervention of the state in the medical supervision of childhood, the relationship between the philanthropic organizations and the state, as well as the impact of the national rivalries and wars on efforts to improve child heath.

Contents:

INTRODUCTION
PART 1: HEALTH AND CHILD WELFARE IN GREECE (1890-1920)
CHAPTER I: THE EMERGENCE OF INTEREST IN CHILD HEALTH 39
CHAPTER II: CONCERNS ABOUT STUDENT HEALTH AND THE FIRST STEPS IN THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY
1. Public Health and Student Morbidity
2. The Health of Schoolchildren; a Matter of `National Efficiency'
3. The First Attempts to Improve Child Health
CHAPTER III: THE SCHOOL MEDICAL SERVICE AND THE SPREAD OF HYGIENE
1. The Establishment of the School Medical Service
2. Emmanuel Lambadarios: a Pioneer in School Hygiene
3. School medical inspection until 1920
4. The Work of the School Medical Service until 1920
5. Growth Indices
CHAPTER IV: MODERNITY AND WELFARE INSTITUTIONS FOR CHILD HEALTH
1. Voluntary associations and social hygiene for students
2. Novelties and institutions for children
3. Accomplishments and prospects in public health circa 1920
4. The Greek Paedology Society and the journal (Paedology)
PART II: FROM MORALIZATION TO THE SOCIAL TURN OF MEDICAL CONCERN (1922-1935)
CHAPTER I: HEALTH AS PUBLIC GOOD DURING THE INTERWAR PERIOD
CHAPTER II: THE ARRIVAL OF REFUGEES; NEW PRIORITIES AND READJUSTMENT OF TARGETS
1. The Condition of Public Health and the First Measures
2. The Action of the Patriotic Welfare Foundation in the 1920s: Urgent Needs and New Directions
3. Health Care Measures for Students (1922-1928): Financial Limitations and Containment of the Attempts
CHAPTER III: THE LIBERAL GOVERNMENT AND THE PROTECTION OF CHILDHOOD AND MOTHERHOOD: LANDMARKS AND CONTINUITIES (1928-1932)
1. The Plan for the Reorganization of Public Health: Expectations and Frustration
2. Hygienic and Social Policy on Infants
3. School Hygiene and Hygienic Propositions
4. Teaching Hygiene at School
5. Papandreou's Programme on School Buildings
6. Open-air teaching, children's summer camps and semi-open-air solutions
7. Nutrition and the Organization of Soup Kitchens during the Interwar
8. Eugenic Propositions and Puericulture Concerns in Interwar Greece
9. Mental Health and Hygiene during the Interwar
PART III: CHILD AND MATERNAL WELFARE DURING THE METAXAS'S REGIME (1936-1940)
CHAPTER I: SOCIAL POLICY AND THE IDEOLOGY OF THE REGIME
1. The New State: moral reform and cultural mission
2. The National Youth Organisation (EON): the cult of the leader
3. Authoritatian and modernizing trends in health and social welfare
4. Social policy on health: priorities and limitations
CHAPTER II: THE POLITICAL USE OF MOTHERHOOD AND CHILDHOOD WELFARE
1. "Childhood is the foundation of the nation's future": welfare for students
2. Care for sickly children
3. The policy on motherhood and infancy
4. The medicalization of birth
5. Demographical trends and priorities: the Greek paradigm
6. The Balkan congresses: findings and prospects
CONCLUSION
PRIMARY SOURCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY