Andrew M. Wehrman is an associate professor of history at Central Michigan University. A winner of the Walter Muir Whitehill Prize in Early American History, his writing has appeared in The New England Quarterly, The Boston Globe, and The Washington Post.
His book The Contagion of Liberty: The Politics of Smallpox in the American Revolution was published in 2022.
At Shepherd Wehrman tagged five of the best books to understand health and politics in the early United States. One title on the list:
The Contagious City: The Politics of Public Health in Early Philadelphia by Simon FingerRead about another entry on the list.
Simon Finger’s book, The Contagious City, is a wonderful, concise introduction to the politics of public health in early America. By focusing on Philadelphia, a city literally designed by William Penn to be healthier than European cities, Finger shows how a distinctly American view of public health developed even after that original plan failed to achieve its desired results. Finger describes the growth of the medical community in Philadelphia, its trials during the Revolution, and its failures during the 1793 yellow fever epidemic.
The Page 99 Test: The Contagious City.
--Marshal Zeringue
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