American Contagions: Epidemics and the Law from Smallpox to COVID-19


By: Witt, John Fabian

Price: $2.95

Quantity: 6 available

Condition: Acceptable

Views: 264


Standard-sized. Acceptable - This is a significantly damaged book. It should be considered a reading copy only. Please order this book only if you are interested in the content and not the condition. May be ex-library. HARDCOVER


More Info


From yellow fever to smallpox to polio to AIDS to COVID-19, epidemics have prompted Americans to make choices and answer questions about their basic values and their laws. In five concise chapters, historian John Fabian Witt traces the legal history of epidemics, showing how infectious disease has both shaped, and been shaped by, the law. Arguing that throughout American history legal approaches to public health have been liberal for some communities and authoritarian for others, Witt shows us how history's answers to the major questions brought up by previous epidemics help shape our answers today: What is the relationship between individual liberty and the common good? What is the role of the federal government, and what is the role of the states? Will long-standing traditions of government and law give way to the social imperatives of an epidemic? Will we let the inequities of our mixed tradition continue?

Title: American Contagions: Epidemics and the Law from Smallpox to COVID-19

Author Name: Witt, John Fabian

ISBN Number: 0300257279

ISBN-13: 9780300257274

Location Published: Yale University Press: 2020-10-27

Book Condition: Acceptable

Categories: Other

Seller ID: M0300257279Z4