Pox: An American History (Penguin History of American Life) By Michael Willrich

Best Edition Pox: An American History (Penguin History of American Life) with Free PDF EDITION Download Now!

Name: Best Edition Pox: An American History (Penguin History of American Life) with Free PDF EDITION
Rating: 9.6 (4409 reviews)
Author: Michael Willrich

Kindle Store,Kindle eBooks,History Pox: An American History (Penguin History of American Life) Michael Willrich

4,2

Related Ebook :

Best Edition Pox: An American History (Penguin History of American Life) with Free PDF EDITION Download Now!

The untold story of how America's Progressive-era war on smallpox sparked one of the great civil liberties battles of the twentieth century. At the turn of the last century, a powerful smallpox epidemic swept the United States from coast to coast. The age-old disease spread swiftly through an increasingly interconnected American landscape: from southern tobacco plantations to the dense immigrant neighborhoods of northern cities to far-flung villages on the edges of the nascent American empire. In Pox, award-winning historian Michael Willrich offers a gripping chronicle of how the nation's continentwide fight against smallpox launched one of the most important civil liberties struggles of the twentieth century. At the dawn of the activist Progressive era and during a moment of great optimism about modern medicine, the government responded to the deadly epidemic by calling for universal compulsory vaccination. To enforce the law, public health authorities relied on quarantines, pesthouses, and "virus squads"-corps of doctors and club-wielding police. Though these measures eventually contained the disease, they also sparked a wave of popular resistance among Americans who perceived them as a threat to their health and to their rights. At the time, anti-vaccinationists were often dismissed as misguided cranks, but Willrich argues that they belonged to a wider legacy of American dissent that attended the rise of an increasingly powerful government. While a well-organized anti-vaccination movement sprang up during these years, many Americans resisted in subtler ways-by concealing sick family members or forging immunization certificates. Pox introduces us to memorable characters on both sides of the debate, from Henning Jacobson, a Swedish Lutheran minister whose battle against vaccination went all the way to the Supreme Court, to C. P. Wertenbaker, a federal surgeon who saw himself as a medical missionary combating a deadly-and preventable-disease. As Willrich suggests, many of the questions first raised by the Progressive-era antivaccination movement are still with us: How far should the government go to protect us from peril? What happens when the interests of public health collide with religious beliefs and personal conscience? In Pox, Willrich delivers a riveting tale about the clash of modern medicine, civil liberties, and government power at the turn of the last century that resonates powerfully today.

At this time of writing, The Audiobook Pox: An American History (Penguin History of American Life) has garnered 10 customer reviews with rating of 5 out of 5 stars. Not a bad score at all as if you round it off, it’s actually a perfect TEN already. From the looks of that rating, we can say the Audiobook is Good TO READ!

Best Edition Pox: An American History (Penguin History of American Life) with Free PDF EDITION!

This is a story of medical science and public health officials both battling fear, ignorance, stubbornness to new scientific advances and yet political and social engineering correctness of its day, all in the name of finding a way to treat and/or prevent smallpox more technically called variola. The expression MAY THE POX BE UPON YOU was considered one of the worse curses of earlier days and a play upon the title of this review.This is a 422 page book with 73 pages of cites, notes, and index, so is well researched and not casually written, yet it reads like a wonderful medical and social novel. The book opens with trying to pin down the beginning of the NYC smallpox outbreak at the turn of the 20th Century. It ascribes one of the early documented cases to Madeline Lyon a 12yo girl diagnosed on 11/27/1900 the Tuesday before Thanksgiving of that year.Over the centuries, smallpox was considered to be the deadliest contagious disease in the world with some 300 million deaths through the 20th century and an average mortality rate of 25-30%, but which could vary from a mere 10% to a staggering 60% depending on the strain involved. This struggle for a prevention or cure also turned out to be one of the first and one of the most important struggles for civil liberties regarding the fight against mandatory vaccination for the good of the populace as a whole, similar to the feelings some have about childhood vaccines today. Around the turn of the 20th Century and even somewhat later the disease was thought to be brought on by outsiders and predominantly male Negroes. And it is true that Blacks and males suffered in disproportionate degrees, but it was due primarily to their proximate living conditions in labor camps of the day and not due to race or gender. Yet, as it typical, society always needs someone to blame.Even though Edward Jenner discovered a vaccine to prevent smallpox by using the cowpox virus [the word vaccine comes from the Latin word vaccina referring to bovines] it wasn't officially eradicated until 1980, with the last documented case of young Somali girl on 10/31/1977.Smallpox was the disease upon which the field of immunology was founded, and helped spur the discovery of two important medical developments; the first being freeze dried vaccines which allowed their potency to last much longer and the second being the bi-bifurcated needle which allowed 4X as many people to be vaccinated with the same amount of innoculant.The novel aspect of the story is well told in the discussion of various epidemic outbreaks and how the medical and political teams worked together and against each other with each trying to maintain their respective fiefdoms. It is a great read for any person interested in medical history and scientific sleuthing.

Related Ebook :

Search This Blog

Ebook And Free PDF - MOBI

Audio Book Pox: An American History (Penguin History of American Life) with Free EASY Reading Download Now!

Best Edition Pox: An American History (Penguin History of American Life) with Free PDF EDITION Download Now!

Related Ebook :

Best Edition Pox: An American History (Penguin History of American Life) with Free PDF EDITION Download Now!

Best Edition Pox: An American History (Penguin History of American Life) with Free PDF EDITION!

Related Ebook :

Comments

Post a Comment