A Concise History of Public Health

This textbook is a concise history of public health, focusing on key moments, discoveries, events, and people. Written in narrative format, 15 chronologically-sequenced chapters engage the student in understanding each important discovery or theme that became integral to defining the mission of Public Health today.

Through the use of real sources of the day, such as newspapers, government documents, contemporary textbooks, papers or journal articles about public health and medicine, the author creates a story that will draw in the reader and illuminate the importance of that particular topic.

Key Features:

• Ample illustrations depict important visual aspects of the event or era to complement the narratives.
• The importance of each aspect of public health history is foreshadowed and linked to its relevance to public health today.
• Each Public Health event is set in the context of surrounding events, such as war, politics, geography, or personalities, as public health is linked to social norms of the time.
• Discussion questions for each chapter stimulate the student to apply critical thinking skills


Chapters topics may include:

1. Early Theories of Health and Disease (includes Global Perspective)
2. The “Great Sanitary Awakening”
3. The Germ Theory of Disease
4. War and Public Health
5. The Environment and Health: Worker health and safety (Alice Hamilton); Clean Air, Water and Safer Food
6. The Antibiotic Era – The Discovery of Penicillin
7. Counting and Cholera – The History of Epidemiology
8. Puerperal Fever – The Health of Mothers and Babies
9. Tropical Diseases and The Panama Canal
10. Immunizations: From Coxpox to Vaccines
11. Science, Scurvy, and Public Health Nutrition (includes Vitamins)
12. Medicine and Public Health - Laws and the Organization of Public Health
13. The Great Tobacco Wars
14. The History of AIDS
15. Advances in Science, Medicine, Technology and Public Health History (might include transfusions, anesthesia, other technologies having public health significance)