The Cure for Everything - by Michelle A Williams (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Public health is an unusual discipline -- a combination of science, sociology, politics, and logistics--with a simple goal: to create the conditions for human thriving. At the moment, Americans, regardless of what macroeconomic statistics might suggest, are decidedly not thriving: from our failed covid response to our epidemics of depression and isolation to our inadequate healthcare system, Americans are in a state of deep malaise. Michelle Williams, one of the country's true innovators in public health, reaches back into the past to draw out the lessons that public health has to offer for our time and into the future. She tells the hidden history of public health in America--how radicals and renegades from WEB DuBois to Jane Addams to the activists of ACT UP helped lead what she calls "the great escape" from human suffering that is at the heart of the public health mission. As she takes readers from one dramatic story to the next, she draws out the lessons that apply to our time, and makes the compelling argument that it is public health, rather than standard economic metrics or partisan politics, that should drive our country's policies and political culture -- and that if we fail to prioritize health and well-being for everyone, we have failed as a society. She ends by pointing to the ideas and policies that have the potential to transform this country and fulfill our founding creed--to "promote the general welfare for ourselves and our posterity." Here is a dramatic, sweeping history that enables us to better understand the past--the victories, defeats, and tipping points that compelled us to take action--and what we need to do in the future to address new and novel threats, and complete the unfinished business of public health"-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

The inspiring story of how we overcame a history of infectious disease, poisonous environments, and early death and unlocked an explosion in human potential--and a vision for the work ahead to optimize human flourishing in the twenty-first century

Public health is an unusual discipline--a combination of science, sociology, politics, and logistics--with a simple goal: to create the conditions for human thriving. Despite a century of massive improvements in our health and quality of life, Americans--reeling from our disastrous pandemic response, epidemics of depression and isolation, and a failing healthcare system--are understandably distrustful of public health. But the true history of public health doesn't just reveal one of the greatest feats in human history--our great escape from early death and infectious disease--it points toward a future of even greater improvements. The cure for everything? It's all of us, working together for our collective health.

Michelle A. Williams, one of the country's true innovators in public health, here tells the dramatic hidden history of public health in America: a story of how radicals and renegades--from W.E.B. Du Bois to Alice Hamilton to the activists of ACT UP--and the institutions and infrastructure we built together helped transform our world. As she takes readers through these dramatic stories, she draws out their deeper lessons. In the end, she makes a powerful argument that it is public health that should drive our country's policies and politics--that if our policies fail to increase the health and well-being of everyone, regardless of race or economic status, we have failed as a society.

Here is a dramatic, sweeping history with a galvanizing vision for how we can address new threats and complete the unfinished business of public health.

About the Author

Michelle A. Williams is a professor of epidemiology and population health at Stanford University School of Medicine and former Dean of the Faculty at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, where she also served as the Angelopoulos Professor in Public Health and International Development and currently holds an adjunct professorship. An internationally renowned epidemiologist and award-winning educator, Dr. Williams is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the American Epidemiological Society. She has authored more than 550 peer-reviewed research articles and is recognized as a leading voice in public health science and global health.

Linda Marsa is an award-winning investigative journalist. She is a former Los Angeles Times reporter and has written two books, Prescription for Profits, about the pharmaceutical industry, and Fevered: Why a Hotter Planet Will Harm Our Health and How We Can Save Ourselves, which the New York Times called "gripping to read."