Bibliograph

American contagions, epidemics and the law from Smallpox to Covid-19, John Fabian Witt

Type

Label

American contagions, epidemics and the law from Smallpox to Covid-19, John Fabian Witt

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references and index

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

American contagions

Nature of contents

abstracts summaries

Oclc number

1162881542

Responsibility statement

John Fabian Witt

Sub title

epidemics and the law from Smallpox to Covid-19

Summary

" 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?"--Amazon

Classification