Abstract
‘Present and future in the light of history’ outlines some possibilities for future public health and discusses some emergent as well as long-standing issues. A 2015 enquiry showed that there had been both changes for the better in public health and changes for the worse over the previous fifty years. The indeterminate nature of ‘public health’ is unlikely to change: what counts as public health and what is emphasized will continue to vary depending on external factors and circumstances and on which institutions and groups are involved. One feature of the future scenario is likely to be increased interdependence between issues at the national and at the international or global levels.
