Why are some groups and individuals seen as problems for public health? How does this change over time and place? Through a series of case-studies, this collection explores the making of ‘problem publics’ and their relationship with public health authorities.

Introduction: publics and their health – historical problems and perspectives – Alex Mold, Peder Clark and Hannah J. Elizabeth1 ‘Democracy trains its microscope’ on public health: intergovernmental relations, competing publics and negotiations at the grassroots – Jennifer Gunn2 ‘Dumping grounds for… human waste’: containing problem populations in post-war British public health policy, 1945–74 – Michael Lambert 3 Socialism, health and the politics of identity: conversations from East Germany’s AIDS crisis – Johanna Folland4 Forgoing fat: food choice, disease prevention and the role of the food industry in health promotion in England, 1980–92 – Jane Hand 5 At the borders of the public: immigrant and migrant publics and the right to health – Beatrix Hoffman 6 The emergence of violence as a public health problem in Argentina – Martín Hernán Di MarcoAfterword: from Asiatic cholera to COVID-19 – the many publics of modern public health – Tom CrookIndex

Attempts to secure the health of the population of a given place are one of the oldest forms of government action. Such efforts necessarily require the involvement of the publics they aim to protect – but up to now surprisingly little attention has been paid to who or what these publics consist of. This collection addresses the gap by considering who the public of ‘public health’ was in an array of places and for a variety of illnesses. It deconstructs the notion of a single unitary public while illustrating the processes that go in to making ‘problem publics’ and ‘public health problems’. Presenting examples from contexts as diverse as the USA in the interwar period, East Germany in the 1980s and contemporary Argentina, contributors identify what is general and what is specific to the processes that make certain kinds of publics appear problematic. Offering new perspectives on the history of public health in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, Publics and their health opens out beyond purely national studies. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, it offers fresh insights into the nature of public health problems and practices.