Introduction: Imperial and post-imperial healthcare before welfare states

The goal of this special issue is to connect work done in colonial and post-colonial history and in European history through a focus on imperial and post-imperial healthcare. To date, imperial and post-imperial histories of healthcare have focused overwhelmingly on developments in European colonial empires. Europe’s land empires, such as those of Central and Eastern Europe consolidated by Austria-Hungary and Prussia, have received comparatively less attention in English-language scholarship. This introduction highlights key debates in imperial and post-imperial histories of healthcare, and brings material and epistemological transformations in health and social welfare across different imperial formations and their successor states into dialogue. The editors also delineate some of the challenges and payoffs of a comparative approach in relation to the articles in this special issue, which encompass experiences in 10 imperial and post-imperial states, ca. 1870 to 1970. Finally, the editors review the articles, identifying a set of connecting themes that offer opportunities for future research making global comparisons.