American Contagions: Epidemics and the Law from Smallpox to COVID-19

185 Pages·2020·6.856 MB·English

by  John Fabian Witt

AMERICAN CONTAGIONS
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AMERICAN
CONTAGIONS

Epidemics and the Law
from Smallpox to COVID-19

John Fabian Witt
New HaveN & LoNdoN
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Published with assistance from the income of the
Frederick John Kingsbury Memorial Fund.
Copyright © 2020 by John Fabian Witt.
All rights reserved.
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in
any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S.
Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press),
without written permission from the publishers.
Yale University Press books may be purchased in quantity
for educational, business, or promotional use. For information, please e-mail
[email protected] (U.S. office) or [email protected] (U.K. office).
Designed by Dustin Kilgore.
Set in Yale type by Karen Stickler.
Printed in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020940896
ISBN 978-0-300-25727-4 (hardcover : alk. paper)
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992
(Permanence of Paper).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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For Gus and Teddy,
my heroic contagion-era companions
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CONTENTS
Introduction 1
Chapter 1: The Sanitationist State 13
Chapter 2: Quarantinism in America 35
Chapter 3: Civil Liberties in an Epidemic? 61
Chapter 4: New Sanitationisms / New Quarantinisms 85
Chapter 5: Masked Faces toward the Past 107
Afterword: Viral Protests 139
Notes 143
Suggested Reading 161
Acknowledgments 165
Index 167

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AMERICAN CONTAGIONS
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