Opinions Throughout History: Diseases & Epidemics traces the history of some of the most impactful diseases in human history, such as smallpox, measles, the bubonic plague, and HIV, and looks at how these viruses and bacterial plagues affected American politics and culture. The book will also explore the rise and spread of the anti-vaccination and science skepticism movements and their relationship to American and global public health.

Table of Contents

• Publisher’s Note
• Introduction
• Historical Timeline
• 1. The American Plague: Bringing Diseases to America (1620)
• 2. The Grinning Death: The History of Lockjaw (300 BCE-1924)
• 3. The Children’s Disease: The Effort to Beat Whooping Cough (1200s-1914)
• 4. The Black Death: The Bubonic Plague in History and in the Modern World (1347-Present)
• 5. The Strangling Angel of Children: The Diphtheria Epidemic in America (1613-1925)
• 6. The Colonialist Disease: Smallpox and the Making of America (6th Century-1770)
• 7. The First Vaccine: Development of the First Vaccine for Smallpox (1796-1979)
• 8. Fear of Science: The Origin of the Anti-Vaccination Movement (1809-1905)
• 9. Another Childhood Menace: The Effort to Combat Measles (1765-1963)
• 10. Measles Strikes Back: The Resurgence of Measles and the Anti-Vaccination Movement (1981-1991)
• 11. Yellow Fever and the Mosquito Problem: Insect Vectors in Epidemic Diseases (1793-1953)
• 12. The Riparian Plague: The Spread of Cholera across the World (1817-1866)
• 13. The Red Rash: The Scarlet Fever Epidemic in American Popular Culture (1858-Present)
• 14. Marsh Fever: The Global Threat of Malaria (1897-Present)
• 15. The Infamous Typhoid Mary: The Typhoid Plague and Asymptomatic Carriers (1906-1907)
• 16. A Non-Spanish Flu: The Spanish Flu Epidemic and the History of Influenza (1918-1919)
• 17. A Presidential Disease: Polio and the Creation of America’s Vaccination Culture (1916-1955)
• 18. America’s Disease Authority: The Formation of the Centers for Disease Control (1914-1946)
• 19. The Global Health Problem: The Foundations of the World Health Organization (1948)
• 20. The Asian Flu: The H2N2 Influenza Outbreak (1957)
• 21. The Hong Kong Flu: The 1968 Influenza Pandemic (1968)
• 22. The DTP Controversy: The DTP Debate and Anti-Vaccination (1970s)
• 23. Human Immunodeficiency Virus: Politics and Prejudice: The HIV Pandemic and the Impact of Prejudice on Public Health (1981)
• 24. The Autism Myth: The MMR Vaccine and the Autism Controversy (1998-Present)
• 25. The First Coronavirus: The 2002 SARS Pandemic and the WHO and CDC Response (2002-Present)
• 26. The Bird Flu: The 2006 Pandemic and the Problem of Avian Carriers (2006-Present)
• 27. Return of the Coronavirus: Early History of the COVID-19 Crisis (2019)
• 28. America in the Age of COVID: The American Reaction to COVID-19 (2020)
• 29. Conclusion: Managing Fear and “I” Thinking
• Primary and Secondary Sources
• Glossary
• Historical Snapshots
• Bibliography
• About the Author