Description
Book Synopsis Even a pandemic is subject to politics. Disease has always been a catalyst for change, influencing wars, the rise and fall of leaders, economics, religion, art, and, most certainly, people''s lives. Disease, as Covid demonstrates, can be politicized as well. While the pandemic that erupted in 2019 may be the most politicized in American history, it is far from the only one. Indeed, disease has afflicted the United States since the beginning, and it has been exploited by politicians, the media, and others to further their agendas. Parties have defined disease, and disease has defined political parties.
From the 16th century to the present, this work traces the interactions of disease and politics in the United States. Major pandemics, local outbreaks, and even presidential illnesses are all examined to see how political parties have seized upon their origins, spread, and treatment to promote their own ideologies. Immigration, civil rights, gender, war, economics, public h
Table of Contents
- Table of Contents
- Introduction
- I. Disease and the Conquest of the Americas
- II. Inoculation Intrigue
- III. A Nation Forged in Gout
- IV. Mosquitos and the Emergence of Political Parties
- V. Buffalo Fever and the Anti-War Movement
- VI. "A people so well fed and so clean": Cholera and Jacksonian Politics
- VII. Presidential Poxes
- VIII. "The Wretched Refuse": Disease and 19th-Century Immigration Debates
- IX. Rashes and Reforms
- X. The Pox of Progressivism: Vaccinations
- XI. The Pox of Progressivism: Culling the Herd
- XII. Disease and the Democratic Process
- XIII. Immigration and Illness in the 20th Century
- XIV. The AIDS Epidemic?
- XV. Moon Fever
- XVI. The "Wuhan" Virus
- Conclusion
- Chapter Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
