ABSTRACT
Health formed a ubiquitous element of the interwar world, and often its core. This transition from the nineteenth century to the post-World War II world involved a combination of transformations that gave interwar health a specific, albeit highly contradictory character. It includes ideological and technological structures that were both highly destructive and beneficial, competing health concepts that were complementary as well as incompatible, the rise of lifestyles that were both harmful and beneficial to human health.
The defining characteristic of interwar health was massive dying through warfare, disease, and famine. Wars formed a major driver for active health policies that tied into the establishment of national and international health administrations. In interaction with these changes, societies around the world experienced health transitions in quantity (life expectancy) and quality (health risk transformations) of health.
