The Pox of Liberty

The United States is one of the richest countries in the world.  But, in 2011, life expectancy in the US ranked 38th--behind Cuba, Chile, Costa Rica, and Greece.  Some suggest this discrepancy can be explained by policies and behaviors, and others say the absence of universal health care is to blame. What’s really going on?   Werner Troesken looks to history to offer a novel yet authoritative perspective on how from colonial times to the mid-twentieth century public health has been shaped by the American constitutional order.  Whether it was the American commitment to federalism, as embodied in the Constitution’s Commerce Clause, the Fourteenth Amendment, popular beliefs about individual liberty and the appropriate functions of government, or a variety of institutions that fostered private property rights, Troesken shows how the American constitutional order affected both income and the provision of disease prevention.  Presenting salient examples of how American institutions and ideologies affected its public health, Troesken offers a valuable new take on how and why national health in the US developed the way it did.  Illustrating in compelling new ways how preventable diseases are the result of public and private choices, The Pox of Liberty challenges traditional claims that infectious diseases and their biological processes are inexorable forces in human history, beyond the control of either individual actors or states.