THE CURE FOR EVERYTHING

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.