Dr Charles Webster
BSc, MSc, MA, DSc
History
Emeritus Fellow since 2004
Charles Webster is primarily engaged in work on Theophrastus von Hohenheim (known also as Paracelsus). Following on from his recent Yale UP book, which was mainly concerned with religious and social thinking of Paracelsus, he is at an advanced stage of a further book, mainly concerned with the scientific and medical work for which Paracelsus is particularly well known. His aim, as with the previous book, is to take full account of the recent literature and to adopt a fresh perspective.
Research Areas
Intellectual History
History of the National Health Service and Welfare State.
Selected Publications
Paracelsus. Medicine, Magic and Mission at the End of Time
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008)
The National Health Service: A Political History, 2nd edn.
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).
The Great Instauration, 2nd edn.
(Oxford: Peter Lang, 2002).
Government and Health Care: The British National Health Service 1958–1979
(London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1996).
Problems of Health Care: the National Health Service before 1957
(London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1988).
From Paracelsus to Newton: Magic and the Making of Modern Science
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982).
Background