The cure for everything The epic struggle for public health and a radical vision for human thriving

Epidemiologist Williams debuts with an expansive history of public health, demonstrating how politics has subverted efforts to improve the lives of individuals and communities. She shows how the discovery of microbes responsible for diseases launched a "golden age in public health" in the early 20th century, sparking clean water and vaccination initiatives that increased life expectancy. But as germs became the primary focus of public health policy, social issues, like a lack of access to health care, were ignored. She chronicles the creation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and cites instances of public health measures being shut down by outside forces, such as how efforts in the 1990s to study gun violence were derailed by a law banning the use of federal funding to conduct research that would promote gun control. Williams explains how public health, if practiced appropriately, can help with issues as wide ranging as gun violence, domestic abuse, environmental racism, and unsafe working conditions. Throughout, she makes numerous critical points, including that "zip codes are more important than genetic codes as a predictor of health and longevity" and "knowledge by itself doesn't save lives. It's the social and political will to use the science to make changes happen that saves lives." The result is an urgent, inspiring vision of what public health can be. (Feb.)

A wide-ranging history of public health told through the stories of individuals who improved the lives of millions. Williams, a public health expert with appointments at Stanford and Harvard universities, recounts example after example of public health efforts in the U.S.--the good, the bad, and the complicated. For instance, New York City's Central Park was created to be "the lungs of the city" but at the same time destroyed a thriving Black settlement called Seneca Village. Two-thirds of the 750,000 soldiers who died in the Civil War perished from disease, not battle injuries. The Union army had better sanitation, food, and shelter, in addition to medical care, which, Williams asserts, is why they won the war. The stories are carefully placed into historical context. Germ theory, for instance, was a huge advance in medicine, but also tipped the health care balance toward focusing on individual patients rather than policies that might improve conditions for a population. The diversity of public health heroes makes for an enlightening read, as Williams spotlights Black Americans and women who had to overcome discriminatory barriers just to enter influential spaces typically populated by white men. In the 1890s, W.E.B. Du Bois documented that the living conditions of Black Philadelphians were to blame for their poor health outcomes compared with whites--rather than any supposed natural inferiority of Black people. Other featured Black men are William Jenkins, who uncovered the Tuskegee syphilis study, and former CDC director David Satcher, who encouraged condom use to prevent AIDS in the Black community, which was largely distrustful of the medical establishment. Likewise, Alice Hamilton gathered strong evidence that bad working conditions contributed to illness and deaths in Chicago factory workers. Gun violence, environmental toxins, and racial disparities also get their turn in the book, as the author unpacks social determinants of health that affect all of us. Williams emphasizes the gumption of her public health trailblazers and their commitment to strong science--shoe-leather reporting, data collection, and careful analysis that lead to effective solutions. An inspiring read that reveals past successes and ongoing challenges of public health. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.