Top health scholars explore one hundred years of public health policy, practice, activism, and scholarship in a book that offers clarity on historical contours of a complex field and a vision for a future of well-being and health equity.

Public health is diffuse, divided, and poorly understood. As a policy and practice, public health promotes and protects people and communities. As a field of academic inquiry it provides deep insights into the ways individuals and collectives can work within societies to prevent disease and promote health and health equity. Public health is a broad, intersectoral, and interdisciplinary field of scholarship, activism, policy, and practice with the potential to create and support immense change.

This is a story of one hundred years of public health in Alberta. Drawing on extensive research, including interviews with members of Alberta’s public health communities, A History of Public Health in Alberta, 1919-2019 considers institutions, sectors, populations, and activities that constitute the study and practice of public health. It offers a consolidated narrative from a contemporary perspective, paying particular attention to significant and entrenched social inequities of health and their determinants, the emergence of new public health concerns, and communities of public health, including activists, practitioners, scholars, and the public itself.

A History of Public Health in Alberta, 1919-2019 draws together the threads of public health policy, practice, and research, mapping its contours and presenting a holistic view of public health in the province over time. Prompted by the concern, and the experience, that public health is frequently deeply misunderstood, this book articulates a history of the field and practice essential to understanding how we may best mobilize to support well-being and health equity across populations.

Chapter 1. Who Is the Public in Public Health?