Pox

January 24, 2011
Today's controversies over vaccinations pale beside the pitched battles fought at the turn of the 20th century, to judge by this probing work. Historian Willrich (City of Courts) revisits the smallpox epidemic that ravaged the United States from 1898 to 1904 and sparked a showdown between the burgeoning Progressive-era regulatory regime and Americans fearful of the new Leviathan state and the specter of "state medicine." Anxious to stamp out the contagion, public health officials in the South quarantined African-Americans in detention camps if they were suspected of carrying the disease and vaccinated others at gunpoint; in New York "paramilitary vaccination squads" raided immigrant tenements, forcibly inoculating residents and dragging infected children off to pesthouses; their coercive methods sparked occasional riots and lawsuits that helped remake constitutional law. Willrich sees merit on both sides: draconian public health measures saved thousands of lives, but resisters did have legitimate concerns about vaccine safety and side effects, racial targeting and bodily integrity. He does tend to romanticize anti-vaccine activists, whose movement he associates with feminism, free speech, and abolitionism, styling them as "libertarian radicals" engaging in "intimate acts of civil disobedience." Still, his lucid, well-written, empathetic study of a fascinating episode shows why the vaccine issue still pricks the American conscience. Photos.

November 1, 2010

This is not just a book about the smallpox epidemic that swept this country at the dawn of the 20th century. Multi-award-winning historian Willrich shows that resistance to the federal government's efforts to halt the epidemic by enforcing quarantine and vaccination programs sparked a civil liberties debate that's with us today.

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from March 1, 2011
Willrichs account of the early days of the American progressive movement couldnt be more instructive or timely. In the years leading up to and following the turn of the twentieth century, the U.S. was struggling with questions regarding the limits of government-imposed, compulsory health mandates. As smallpox ravaged America, local governments, in particular, were hard-pressed to deal with the disease. An epidemic had the power to effectively shut down everyday life, shuttering businesses and even, in some cases, quarantining entire towns. Public health tools were limited to reactively quarantining sick individuals and proactively mandating compulsory vaccination. Even though the new-found smallpox vaccine had its drawbacks, including unreliable quality and occasional severe side effects, public health officials felt it was the better option. Battle lines formed. Many, the antivaccinationists, rebelled. They objected to compulsory vaccination on the grounds that it was unconstitutional and socialist. With an increasingly urban population, however, governmentfirst local, then state, finally federaldetermined that this mandate was for the public weal and superseded individual choice. The issue was finally decided when the U.S. Supreme Court reached a landmark decision in Jackson v. Massachusetts, a case still cited. Despite occasionally teetering on the edge of too-much-detail, this is a worthy read.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)