Sick Note: A History of the British Welfare State

Sick Note shows how the question of 'who is really sick?' has never been straightforward and will continue to perplex the British state.

Sick Note is a history of how the British state asked, 'who is really sick?' Tracing medical certification for absence from work from 1948 to 2010, Gareth Millward shows that doctors, employers, employees, politicians, media commentators, and citizens concerned themselves with measuring sickness. At various times, each understood that a signed note from a d...