Overview
British physician and historical demographer (1911–1988), originator of the "McKeown thesis" — the argument that the modern (post-1750) decline in mortality was driven primarily by rising living standards and improved nutrition rather than by medical intervention or, in his account, public-health measures.
Key Contributions / Features
- The McKeown thesis: attributed the historical mortality decline mainly to better nutrition and standard of living; highly influential in reframing the determinants-of-mortality debate by downplaying the role of curative medicine.
- His emphasis was sharply contested — Simon Szreter reasserted the centrality of public-health and sanitary intervention, while Robert W. Fogel developed the nutrition/anthropometric strand more formally. Cited in the determinants-of-mortality synthesis. See Preston Curve and Medicalization of Death.
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