Public Health and the American State

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Giles Scott-Smith (Professor of Transnational Relations and New Diplomatic History, Leiden University, The Netherlands) Gaetano Di Tommaso (Postdoctoral Researcher, Roosevelt Institute for American Studies (RIAS), The Netherlands.)

Public Health and the American State

Name: Public Health and the American State
Price: 57.99 AUD
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ISBN: 9781399519342

Giles Scott-Smith (Professor of Transnational Relations and New Diplomatic History, Leiden University, The Netherlands), Gaetano Di Tommaso (Postdoctoral Researcher, Roosevelt Institute for American Studies (RIAS), The Netherlands.), Dario Fazzi (Assistant Professor of US and Environmental History, Leiden University)

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English

Edinburgh University Press
09 April 2026

Social welfare & social services; Civil rights & citizenship; Public health & preventive medicine

This book explores the importance of public health for understanding the transformation of American power, both domestically and internationally, over the past century. Two pandemics

Spanish Flu in 1918-1920 and Covid-19 in 2019-2021

provide the context for analysing the actions and responsibilities of the US government both domestically and internationally. It critically examines the provision of health as a public good in the context of the American Century

the application of American power to achieve a democratic, just, and profitable world order under US leadership. By using these two major health crises as book-ends for extending the American Century rubric beyond its usual twentieth century periodisation, the book emphasises the central role that health has played in conceptions of security, state-market relations, and citizenship formation. It critically examines the ways in which race, gender, and class have shaped attitudes to and applications of public and global health as well as how the responses to the threat of disease have brought mixed results, often contradicting the stated goals of social improvement. By reconsidering the American Century through the lens of the political and social struggles surrounding public health, the book provides a unique analysis of US political and social history.

Edited by: Giles Scott-Smith (Professor of Transnational Relations and New Diplomatic History Leiden University The Netherlands), Gaetano Di Tommaso (Postdoctoral Researcher, Roosevelt Institute for American Studies (RIAS), The Netherlands.), Dario Fazzi (Assistant Professor of US and Environmental History, Leiden University)
Imprint: Edinburgh University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781399519342
ISBN 10: 1399519344
Pages: 252
Publication Date: 09 April 2026
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

List of Illustrations Introduction Gaetano Di Tommaso, Dario Fazzi, Giles Scott-Smith Beyond Control of Local Authorities: The Spanish Influenza Epidemic and Federal Supervision of Public Health Jonathan Chilcote The United States in Two Pandemics: The American Century and the Costs of American Culture Nancy K. Bristow The Politics of Public Health: Disease and Medical Authority in 20th Century America Naomi Rogers From the ‘Lung Block’ to the ‘China Virus’: Public Health, Xenophobia and US Identity Formation over the American Century Stefano Morello, Kerri Culhane Oil, Progress, and Public Health in the Early 20th Century Gaetano Di Tommaso Simkins v. Cone and the Hospital Desegregation Movement in the Long Twentieth Century Richard M. Mizelle, Jr. Better Dead than Red, or Not? Nuclear Physics and Public Health at the Dawn of the Cold War Dario Fazzi Fighting the Cold War and Variola: The American Commitment to Smallpox Eradication Bob H. Reinhardt Brother’s Brother Foundation in Costa Rica: A Case Study in Public-Private Partnerships and Global Health in the American Century Sarah B. Snyder AIDS and Reproductive Rights in the American Century Emma Day The Making of Entitled Consumers: Neoliberal Ideas in the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 Yifei Li ‘Real Men Wear Masks’: COVID-19 and the Crisis of American Masculinity Olga Thierbach-McLean Conclusion Gaetano Di Tommaso, Dario Fazzi, Giles Scott-Smith

Giles Scott-Smith is Professor of Transnational Relations and New Diplomatic History and Dean of Leiden University College at Leiden University, The Netherlands. Gaetano Di Tommaso is Postdoctoral Researcher at the Roosevelt Institute for American Studies (RIAS), The Netherlands. Gaetano Di Tommaso is Postdoctoral Researcher at the Roosevelt Institute for American Studies in Middelburg, The Netherlands, and a lecturer at Radboud University. His research centers on the role of natural resources in U.S. history, with a particular focus on the Progressive Era. His work looks specifically at the extraction and use of specific raw materials, such as fossil fuels, examining their impact on life and politics across diverse scales, from local environments and communities in the U.S. to international governance and global ecosystems. Dario Fazzi is Assistant Professor of US and Environmental History at Leiden University and Senior Researcher at the Roosevelt Institute for American Studies (RIAS), The Netherlands.

Reviews for Public Health and the American State

Public Health and the American State features significant scholarship demonstrating the ways that the U.S. exercise of power and the provision of public health have shaped each other throughout the last century. This carefully curated collection produces that rare volume in which every essay is a must-read, posing new questions and avenues for future research. --Anne Foster, Indiana State University