Sheds light on the US government’s response to epidemics through history―with larger conclusions about COVID-19 and reforms needed before the next plague.In this narrative history of the US through major outbreaks of contagious disease, from yellow fever to the Spanish flu, from HIV/AIDS to Ebola, Polly J. Price examines how law and government affected the outcome of epidemics―and how those outbreaks in turn shaped our government. Price presents a fascinating history that has never been fully explored and draws larger conclusions about the gaps in our governmental and legal response. Plagues in the Nation examines how our country learned―and failed to learn―how to address the panic, conflict, and chaos that are the companions of contagion, what policies failed America again and again, and what we must do better next time.
Price (law and history, Emory U., Georgia) served as law clerk for Arnold on the Eighth US Circuit Court of Appeals from 1989 to 1991. Her biography of him illuminates a stratum of the US justice syst
