Pox of Liberty
Subtitle: How the Constitution Left Americans Rich, Free, and Prone to Infection
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 256
ISBN-13: 9780226922171
Subjects: Public health laws; Public health, united states; Constitutional history, united states
Description: "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"--Dust jacket.