In the November 2009 issue of the American Journal of Public Health, Christopher Hamlin (History, Univ. of Notre Dame) has authored a stunningly good article entitled "Cholera Forcing": The Myth of the Good Epidemic and the Coming of Good Water. Hamlin is one of the preeminent historians of public health in the English-speaking world, and his work is nothing short of an inspiration for me. Here is the Abstract:
It has been frequently claimed that cholera epidemics, both in the 19th century and today, were and can be the key stimulus for procurement of safe water and sanitation, an idea that I call "cholera forcing." "Technology forcing" refers to imposition of exogenous factors that suddenly make possible achievements that had not seemed so; cholera has been seen in this light. I argue that this view oversimplifies and underrepresents the importance of industrialization in securing water supplies. Careful study of the financial, political, and administrative foundations of such changes will be more fruitful.
Even by the absurdly high expectations I have for his work, this article is a tour de force. Combining penetrating historical insight of public health history and ethics with an unbelievably acute assessment of the mechanics of past and present public health policy and policymaking, the article is a paragon for understanding the significance of the humanities in context of public health and public health policy. (For more on this subject, see generally this outstanding article by Alison Bashford and Carolyn Strange, and this project headed up by Simon Szreter).
In any case, I cannot recommend both this article and Hamlin's body of work highly enough.
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