Health and Healing in America

Use these questions to guide your 500-word journal entry due on Blackboard by March 26th, the date of our next “virtual class.”

You DO NOT have to answer all questions!

4. “War is Health.”
At the beginning of the 20th century, how was military and American imperial expansion related to the origins, development and transformation of the “sanitary campaigns” in places that the US military had occupied? What were some of the legacies or achievements of those campaigns; at what cost were they achieved?
Of what causes did the majority of soldiers die during the War of 1898?

5. Stable and Lab
(see p. 171) In the fall of 1901, vaccination regulation was controversial. A few months later it was federal law. What happened?
Describe the process of vaccine manufacture in the early 1900s under the direction of the state boards of health. (How does it compare with today, by the way?)
What were some of the problems with this process, and what were the effects of tainted vaccine?
Why is the Biologics Control Act important?

6. Politics of Tight Spaces
Why were immigrants MORE likely than native-born Americans to be vaccinated at this time?
(see p. 240) Which powers of the state were especially contested when it came to vaccination?

7. The Antivaccinationists
Who was included under the anti-vaccinationist umbrella, and to what other causes and movements was the antivaccination movement connected?
(see p. 271) What were the dueling concepts of liberty at odds in the struggle over vaccination?
What lesson would you draw from the story of Immanuel Pfeiffer?

8. Speaking Law to Power
What was radical, unexpected, or significant about the court case Commonwealth v. Jacobson? (see p. 299) What was the core legal question in the case?
(see p. 308) How did the anti-vaccinationists understand compulsory vaccination as a fundamentally different public health measure?
(see p. 334-335) What have been some of the uses of the Jacobson ruling in the years since?

What did you learn from this book about how “police power” is important in medical history?
How does this book illustrate or connect to some of the principles or themes of the Progressive Era that we discussed in class?