Description
Book SynopsisThe Impacts of COVID-19 on Political Dynamics, Social Inequality, and the Wellbeing of Americans examines the impacts of COVID-19 on political inequality, social inequality, and life changes of Americans. Topics include impacts of COVID-19 on the poor, differences in media responses to previous influenza versus COVID-19 pandemics, the intersection of race, class, and gender specific to this event, gender and changes in occupational loss, specific impacts on college students, and ways in which technological changes integrated with COVID-19. The contributors argue that COVID-19 made political and social inequality worse and affected various groups of Americans differently. This edited volume discusses mechanisms and rationales for why this is the case and offers potential solutions to instances of accelerating inequities in America.
Trade ReviewThis edited book brings together essays on America’s political responses to the covid epidemic. By situating the state’s response at the forefront of the public health’s crisis, the authors show how the state’s rationale was to maintain the existing social order, positioned the economy at the expense of saving lives, and ultimately drive an ideological wedge between Democrats and Republicans around the issue of life and death. This is an important read for critical thinkers interested in the larger question of why crises or black swan events do not lead to social change or political realignment.
-- Randolph Hohle
A thoughtful, well-research, and timely collection of perspectives, this volume gives its readers not only much to think about, but the opportunity to put those thoughts into action.
-- Kenneth Varner, associate dean for Academic Programs UNLV College of Education
Table of ContentsContents
Introduction: The Impact of Covid-19 on Political Dynamics, Social Inequality, and the Wellbeing of Americans
Geoffrey L. Wood
Chapter 1: Did Covid-19 Create a New Opportunity to “Regulate the Poor”?
Donna Bobbitt-Zeher and Adian Dobyns
Chapter 2: What a Difference One Hundred Years Makes: A Covid Queen but no Flu King of South Dakota: Media Portrayals of the Flu of 1918 in South Dakota
Pamela Ray Koch and Aaron B. Franzen
Chapter 3: Livin’ in the Gangsta’s Paradise: Economic Wealth Over Population Health during the Covid-19 Pandemic
Melinda Jackson-Jefferson
Chapter 4: Forced Layoff or Voluntary Leave? The Gender Disparity in Job Loss during the Covid-19 Pandemic
In Choi and Shichao Du
Chapter 5: The First Covid Generation: The Great Equalizing Myth
Eboni Pringle, Elizbeth Piatt, Chinasa Elue, Na’Tasha Evans, and Yu Lin Hsu
Chapter 6: A Shift in the Norms: The Impact of Covid-19 on Class, Access to Technology, and Social Inequalities in Higher Education
Danielle Mehlman-Brightwell and Jeremy C. McCool
About the Contributors
