Professor Bernard Harris

Professor of the History of Social Policy at the University of Southampton, Bernard Harris main academic interests are in the history of social policy and social welfare, with a particular focus on health and well-being.

Professor Harris studied history at Cambridge University and was awarded a PhD by the University of London for work on the medical inspection and nutrition of schoolchildren in Britain in the first half of the twentieth century. He joined the University of Southampton in 1991, having previously taught in the Department of Economic and Social History at Bristol University.

He has published articles on a wide range of subjects, from the history of human height to the social consequences of unemployment in interwar Britain. His most recent book is “The Origins of the British Welfare State, a history of social welfare provision in England and Wales from 1800 to 1945”, which was published by Palgrave in 2004.