The Pox of Liberty

The Pox of Liberty
Author :
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Total Pages : 248
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780226922195
ISBN-13 : 0226922197
Rating : 4/5 (95 Downloads)

Book Synopsis The Pox of Liberty by : Werner Troesken

Download or read book The Pox of Liberty written by Werner Troesken and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2015-06-29 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The United States is among the wealthiest nations in the world. But that wealth hasn't translated to a higher life expectancy, an area where the United States still ranks thirty-eighth—behind Cuba, Chile, Costa Rica, and Greece, among many others. Some fault the absence of universal health care or the persistence of social inequalities. Others blame unhealthy lifestyles. But these emphases on present-day behaviors and policies miss a much more fundamental determinant of societal health: the state. Werner Troesken looks at the history of the United States with a focus on three diseases—smallpox, typhoid fever, and yellow fever—to show how constitutional rules and provisions that promoted individual liberty and economic prosperity also influenced, for good and for bad, the country’s ability to eradicate infectious disease. Ranging from federalism under the Commerce Clause to the Contract Clause and the Fourteenth Amendment, Troesken argues persuasively that many institutions intended to promote desirable political or economic outcomes also hindered the provision of public health. We are unhealthy, in other words, at least in part because our political and legal institutions function well. Offering a compelling new perspective, The Pox of Liberty challenges many traditional claims that infectious diseases are inexorable forces in human history, beyond the control of individual actors or the state, revealing them instead to be the result of public and private choices.


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