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Emerging Diseases, Re-Emerging Histories

The diseases that prove best suited to global expansion are those that best exploit humans' global networks and behaviors in a given age.
Person getting a vaccination.
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A Coronavirus Vaccine Can’t Come at the Expense of Fighting the Virus Now

Government investment into a cancer vaccine had drawbacks.

How to Make a Deadly Pandemic in Indian Country

From the 1918 Spanish flu to Covid-19, broken treaties have been the foundation of health crises among Native people.

Whose Century?

One has to wonder whether the advocates of a new Cold War have taken the measure of the challenge posed by 21st-century China.
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COVID-19 in History

Living through a momentus time has prompted many reflections on what the past has to teach us about why the pandemic took the shape that it did – and how we can better respond to it.

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Dispatches from 1918

Thinking about our future, we look back on the aftermath of a century-old pandemic.
A photo of a woman wearing a mask standing on a subway platform in Times Square.

Rethinking the Solution to New York’s Fiscal Crisis

We are at the end of an era, as choices made in the 1970s have created a society that seems unable to cope with a crisis such as that posed by the coronavirus.
Illustration of body being loaded on to a cart

Pandemic Syllabus

Disease has never been merely a biological phenomenon. Instead, all illnesses—including COVID-19—are social problems for humans to solve.

On the Uses of History for Staying Alive

Reflections on reading Nietzsche in Alaska in the early days of Covid-19.

The Empire of All Maladies

Indigenous scholars have long contested the “virgin-soil epidemics” thesis. Today, it is clear that the disease thesis simply doesn’t hold up.
A doctor treating an AIDS patient
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What the Bungled Response to HIV Can Teach Us About Dealing With Covid-19

Politics, public health and a pandemic. What we didn’t learn from HIV.

Makers of Living, Breathing History: The Material Culture of Homemade Facemasks

Masks have a history associated with disease, status, gender norms, and more.
Man dressed as a bleach bottle superhero is interviewed by reporters.

Bleachman Says, "Clean It With Bleach!"

Education campaigns for HIV/AIDS hold lessons for COVID-19.

The Cure and the Disease

Social Darwinism from AIDS to Covid-19.

Historical Insights on COVID-19, the 1918 Influenza Pandemic, and Racial Disparities

Illuminating a path forward.

It Really Is Different This Time

Two dozen experts consider the George Floyd protests in light of protests past.

George Washington Would Have So Worn a Mask

The father of the country was a team player who had no interest in displays of hyper-masculinity.

The American Nightmare

To be black and conscious of anti-black racism is to stare into the mirror of your own extinction.
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Rampaging Invisible Killer Stalks the Entire Country!

Influenza pandemic of 1918 in the United States.
Demonstrators protest COVID public health measures.
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Conservative Fatalism About the Coronavirus Might Actually Help Us

The philosophy behind calls to lift stay-at-home orders.

The Lessons of the Great Depression

In the 1930s, Americans responded to economic calamity by creating a richer and more equitable society. We can do it again.

When Did Cheap Meat Become an “Essential” American Value?

Keeping meat production moving during the pandemic is dangerous. But history shows that there’s little Americans won’t sacrifice for a cheap steak.

Pandemics Go Hand in Hand with Conspiracy Theories

From the Illuminati to “COVID-19 is a lie,” how pandemics have produced contagions of fear.

How Racism Is Shaping the Coronavirus Pandemic

For hundreds of years, false theories of “innate difference and deficit in black bodies” have shaped American responses to disease.
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Meatpacking Work Has Become Less Safe. Now it Threatens Our Meat Supply

Protecting the food supply chain means protecting workers.
Still from a 1950s animated WHO film featuring a drawing of the globe and an hourglass pointing toward Egypt.

Of Plagues and Papers: COVID-19, the Media, and the Construction of American Disease History

The different ways news media approaches pandemic reporting.

Writing Histories of Intimate Care and Social Distancing in the Age of COVID-19

Unlike cholera, physical and sensory proximity can spread COVID-19 among the populations most vulnerable to it.

Disease Has Never Been Just Disease for Native Americans

Native communities’ vulnerability to epidemics is not a historical accident, but a direct result of oppressive policies and ongoing colonialism.
Postman in a mail truck.
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The Founders Never Intended the U.S. Postal Service to be Managed Like a Business

The mail delivery agency is supposed to serve the public good — not worry about profit.

Another Time a President Used the “Emergency” Excuse to Restrict Immigration

It was 1921, and it changed the character of the United States for decades.

Numbering the Dead

A brief history of death tolls.

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