American contagions : epidemics and the law from smallpox to COVID-19 / John Fabian Witt.
2020
KF3800 .W58 2020
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Details
Title
American contagions : epidemics and the law from smallpox to COVID-19 / John Fabian Witt.
Author
Witt, John Fabian, author.
ISBN
0300257775 (electronic book)
9780300257779 (electronic book)
9780300257779 (electronic book)
Published
New Haven : Yale University Press, [2020]
Language
English
Description
1 online resource (174 pages)
Call Number
KF3800 .W58 2020
Dewey Decimal Classification
344.7304/3
Summary
A concise history of how American law has shaped--and been shaped by--the experience of contagion.
" 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.
" 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.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Access Note
Access limited to authorized users.
Source of Description
Description based on print version record.
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American contagions.
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Table of Contents
Introduction
The sanitationist state
Quarantinism in America
Civil liberties in an epidemic?
New sanitionisms/new quarantinisms
Masked faces toward the past
Afterword: Viral protests.
The sanitationist state
Quarantinism in America
Civil liberties in an epidemic?
New sanitionisms/new quarantinisms
Masked faces toward the past
Afterword: Viral protests.