Description
Book SynopsisLooking at the history of the United States with a focus on three diseases - smallpox, typhoid fever, and yellow fever, this book shows how constitutional rules and provisions that promoted individual liberty and economic prosperity also influenced the country's ability to eradicate infectious disease.
Trade Review"Troesken's The Pox of Liberty fits into the broader category of works by Jared Diamond, David Landes, and Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, as well as others who attempt to understand the relationship between disease, institutions, and economic outcomes. What I like about Troesken's book-and what I think fills a significant gap-is that instead of coming up with a singular story, he recognizes and elucidates with clear and careful prose the subtleties that exist in a complex relationship." (Melissa Thomasson, Miami University)
