Description
Book SynopsisA history of U.S. public health emergencies and how we can turn the tide. Despite enormous advances in medical science and public health education over the last century, access to health care remains a dominant issue in American life. U.S. health care is often hailed as the best in the world, yet the public health emergencies of today often echo the public health emergencies of yesterday: consider the Great Influenza Pandemic of 191819 and COVID-19, the displacement of the Dust Bowl and the havoc of Hurricane Maria, the Reagan administration's antipathy toward the AIDS epidemic and the lack of accountability during the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. Spanning the period from the presidency of Woodrow Wilson to that of Donald Trump, American Health Crisis illuminates howdespite the elevation of health care as a human right throughout the worldvulnerable communities in the United States continue to be victimized by structural inequalities across disparate geographies, income levels, and ethnic groups. Martin Halliwell views contemporary public health crises through the lens of historical and cultural revisionings, suturing individual events together into a narrative of calamity that has brought us to our current crisis in health politics. American Health Crisisconsiders the future of public health in the United States and, presenting a reinvigorated concept of health citizenship, argues that now is the moment to act for lasting change.
Trade Review"An ambitious work. . . .a book on public health can and should only be written in a way that is as inclusive, reflective, accessible in language, and structured as Halliwell’s. It is an important read for any practitioner of public health." * Amerikastudien/American Studies: A Quarterly *
"Noteworthy." * American Historical Review *
Table of ContentsPreface
Introduction 1918: Woodrow Wilson, Crisis, and the Arc of Public Health
Part 1: Geographies of Vulnerability: Environmental Health Crises
1. Disaster: Mississippi Flood, Buffalo Creek, Hurricane Katrina
2. Poverty: Dust Bowl, Urban Ghetto, Indian Reservation
3. Pollution: Nuclear Fallout, Water Contamination, Climate Change
Part 2: States of Vulnerability: Crises of Prevention and Treatment
4. Virus: Influenza, Polio, HIV/AIDS
5. Care: Postwar Hospitals, Community Action, Vet Centers
6. Drugs: Methadone, Diazepam, Fentanyl
Conclusion 2018: Obama, Trump, and the Future of Health Citizenship
Coda 2020
Acknowledgments
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
