New Book by RIAS Staff: Public Health and the American State
RIAS staff members Gaetano Di Tommaso and Dario Fazzi and former RIAS academic director Giles Scott-Smith have just published a new edited volume, titled Public Health and the American State, which explores how public health concerns and political agendas influenced each other in the US over the past century. The book will hit the shelves in February 2024.
Public Health and the American State (Edinburgh University Press, 2024) offers an insightful discussion of the complex relationship between public health, US democracy and power during the so-called American century. By exploring the intertwined roles of politics, race and class lines, the contributors uncover the challenges and contradictions of public health in the US from the Spanish Flu to Covid-19. They are giving insights into how the US government responded and what has been learned over the past century.
Threats to public health
The book includes case studies based on unique research on specific threats to public health, such as polio, diabetes, HIV-AIDS, and Tuberculosis. The case studies critically examine the varying governmental and market-based responses to public health crises, and how these have changed and clashed over time, furthering inequality instead of improving public health.
For more information about the book and to preorder a copy, click here.