The subject of ‘the factory’ and the impact of industrial workspaces on the health of the factory worker is one that has been frequently explored in previous historical studies of occupational health. However, Vicky Long moves away from the existing emphasis on industrial disease and accidental injury that has dominated the field, and instead explores the notion of the factory as a site of health improvement. Her central focus is the emergence of industrial health and welfare provision within British factories over the course of the twentieth century. Highlighting the ‘iconic status of the factory in British culture’ as a symbol of ‘urbanisation, industrial progress, technological innovation and capitalism’, Long charts a radical transformation in the physical and conceptual image of the factory, from the initial shift away from the grim Victorian brick edifices associated with the Industrial Revolution, to the introduction of the ‘garden factories’ of the paternalistic Quaker family firms in the final decades of the nineteenth century, through to the development of modernist ‘model factories’ in the early and mid-twentieth century, detailing the efforts of both private employers and the State to re-conceptualise the function and form of the factory by ‘humanising’ the industrial workspace. The newly conceptualised factories were transformed into attractive environments, aimed at providing workers with fresh air and sunlight, healthy meals, and opportunities for sporting and recreational activities.
A major strength of this book is the way in which Long illustrates these developments, drawing on a range of examples, including Cadbury’s promotion of their Bournville development as a ‘Factory in a Garden’ in 1910, and the modernist Ovaltine and Shredded Wheat factories constructed in the inter-war period. Particular emphasis is placed on the ways in which the model factories entwined the ideologies of production and consumption as an effective marketing tool, constantly emphasising the linkage between the hygiene of the modern factories, the welfare of the worker, and the health, not only of the consumer, but of the nation as a whole. As the title suggests, however, the notion of the healthy factory floundered in the second half of the twentieth century. Long subsequently locates the provision of industrial welfare within the post-war National Health Service (NHS), exploring a development that, she argues, resulted in the demise of specialist factory health provision, deemed unnecessary in the context of the universal healthcare provided by the NHS.
The central theme of The Rise and Fall of the Healthy Factory is an emphasis on the politics of health promotion within factories, exploring the ways in which political and economic developments shaped the history of industrial health provision. Long argues that the new interest in industrial welfare was indicative of a broadly conceived holistic model of health which reflected interest in physical and mental well-being in all spheres of life. The concept of the ideal workplace served to align health concerns alongside economic goals. The primary agents in promoting notions of the healthy factory were not medical professionals or the State, but employers, trades unions, and a newly established group of professionals, welfare supervisors. Long’s key premise is that the role played by employee and employer organisations in shaping the course of industrial medicine has been underestimated. She therefore emphasises the role played by these groups, aiming to illustrate the issue of industrial health as a site of deeply contested negotiations between these different, multiple agents. Whilst this argument is highly convincing, Long’s primary concern is the employee perspective as represented by the Trades Unions Congress (TUC), with much of the evidence presented throughout the book drawn from the TUC archives. This focus dominates the study, and the perspectives of other groups, particularly medical professionals, seem, on occasion, to be less considered. The question of how representative the TUC was in speaking for the entire workforce, when trade union density in this period was less than half the workforce, is significant in understanding the possible discrepancies between the theoretical aims and intentions of the groups and the realities of health provision in the workplace, an issue that Long herself acknowledges.
This is an excellent book, which provides an impressive and perceptive overview of the development of industrial health and welfare provision in Britain in the twentieth century. Consequently, it makes a significant contribution to the broader history of occupational health, and should be considered an indispensable starting point for any academic embarking on historical studies in this field.
