The Contagion of Liberty - by Andrew M Wehrman (Hardcover)

About the Book

"The author argues that a demand for public solutions during smallpox epidemics of the eighteenth century, especially broad access to inoculation, influenced revolutionary politics and changed the way that Americans understood their health and governmental responsibilities to protect it"--

Book Synopsis

Now an LA Times Book Prize finalist: a timely and fascinating account of the raucous public demand for smallpox inoculation during the American Revolution and the origin of vaccination in the United States.

Finalist of the LA Times Book Prize for History by the LA Times, Winner of the Peter J. Gomes Memorial Book Prize by the Massachusetts Historical Society

The Revolutionary War broke out during a smallpox epidemic, and in response, General George Washington ordered the inoculation of the Continental Army. But Washington did not have to convince fearful colonists to protect themselves against smallpox--they were the ones demanding it. In The Contagion of Liberty, Andrew M. Wehrman describes a revolution within a revolution, where the violent insistence for freedom from disease ultimately helped American colonists achieve independence from Great Britain.

Inoculation, a shocking procedure introduced to America by an enslaved African, became the most sought-after medical procedure of the eighteenth century. The difficulty lay in providing it to all Americans and not just the fortunate few. Across the colonies, poor Americans rioted for equal access to medicine, while cities and towns shut down for quarantines. In Marblehead, Massachusetts, sailors burned down an expensive private hospital just weeks after the Boston Tea Party.

This thought-provoking history offers a new dimension to our understanding of both the American Revolution and the origins of public health in the United States. The miraculous discovery of vaccination in the early 1800s posed new challenges that upended the revolutionaries' dream of disease eradication, and Wehrman reveals that the quintessentially American rejection of universal health care systems has deeper roots than previously known. During a time when some of the loudest voices in the United States are those clamoring against efforts to vaccinate, this richly documented book will appeal to anyone interested in the history of medicine and politics, or who has questioned government action (or lack thereof) during a pandemic.

Review Quotes

Well written and engaging....Rather than positioning epidemics and disease as natural phenomenon existing next to social and cultural questions, as most histories of that period do, [Wehrman] convincingly shows that smallpox and inoculation were part of political debates and ideas flowing through the history of the United States' independence....As recent epidemiological and political challenges of the present and recent past remind us, and as Wehrman aptly illuminates, these debates remain as pertinent today as they were in 1776.
--H-Soz-Kult

The Contagion of Liberty is a well-argued and extremely timely book. The depth of research and attention to political as well as medical debates make it a rare successful crossover text of interest to both historians of medicine and historians of the American Revolution. The strength and clarity of the argument and variety of evidence brought to bear make this book a must-read for students and scholars of the period. Wehrman demonstrates that the history of health and disease are essential--not supplemental--to our understanding of the past.
--Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences

In The Contagion f Liberty, Andrew Wehrman weaves together dozens of individual stories and their layered historical contexts to provide a fascinating account of smallpox in America, from colonial times through the early republic. A deeply researched and gracefully written volume.
--Wall Street Journal

An accessible and valuable example of the long history of American healthcare controversies.
--H-War

Andrew Wehrman makes a robust case that there is nothing new under the sun in public health in his fantastic new monographThe Contagion of Liberty is both timely and sturdy in its findingsIt belongs on any list of the best history books of 2023.
--American History

Over the past three years of the COVID-19 pandemic, controversies about preventive measures, government versus individual control of health, medical racism and health inequities, disease versus the economy, and vaccine mandates have raged. Wehrman shows that this is not new ground we are treading...
--American Journal of Public Health

Timely and thought provoking.
--H-Net

The Contagion of Liberty is a timely and fascinating account of the raucous public demand for smallpox inoculation during the American Revolution.This thought-provoking history offers a new dimension to our understanding of both the American Revolution and the origins of public health in the United States.
--New York Almanack

In The Contagion of Liberty, historian Andrew Wehrman traces the path of the smallpox-inoculation movement, and its generally overlooked impact on politics around the American War of Independence. He argues that smallpox influenced the journey towards independence from British rule, and how Americans conceived of their new, hard-won liberties. It is a tale of startling contemporary relevance.As vaccination was privatized, he argues, the concept of a civic duty to protect public health was displaced by the idea of disease as a consequence of personal negligence.
--Nature

The Covid pandemic wasn't the first time that America has found itself split along ideological seams over infectious disease.As historian Andrew Wehrman explains in The Contagion of Liberty: The Politics of Smallpox in the American Revolution, our downright violent resistance to, and demand for freedom from, the disease was also precisely what helped galvanize our mobilization of independence from England.
--Engadget

About the Author

Andrew M. Wehrman is an associate professor of history at Central Michigan University. A winner of the Walter Muir Whitehill Prize in Early American History, his writing has appeared in The New England Quarterly, The Boston Globe, and The Washington Post.