Silent Victories

Silent Victories

Author: John W. Ward

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 507

ISBN-13: 0195150694

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Americans' health improved dramatically over the twentieth century. Public health programs for disease and injury prevention were responsible for much of this advance. Over the century, America's public health system grew dramatically, employing science and political authority in response to an increasing array of health problems. As the disease burden of the old scourges of infection, perinatal mortality, and dietary deficiencies began to lift, public health's mandate expanded to take on new health threats, such as those resulting from a changing workplace, the rise of the automobile, and chronic and complex conditions caused by smoking, diet and other lifestyle and environmental factors. Public health measures almost always occur on contested ground; accordingly, controversies and recriminations over past failures often persist. In contrast, public health's many successes, even the imperfect ones, become part of the fabric of everyday life, a fact already apparent early in the last century, when C.E.A. Winslow reminded his peers that the lives saved and healthy years extended were the "silent victories" of public health. In its exploration of ten major public health issues addressed in the 20th century, Silent Victories takes a unique approach: for each issue, leading scientists in the field trace the discoveries, practices and programs that reduced morbidity and mortality from disease and injury, and an accompanying chapter by a historian or social scientist highlights key moments or conflicts that shaped public health action on that issue. The book concludes with a look toward the challenges public health must face in the future. Silent Victories reveals the lessons of history in a format designed to appeal to students, health professionals and the public seeking to understand how public health advanced the country's health in the 20th century, and the challenges to protecting health in the future.


Partisans and Progressives

Partisans and Progressives

Author: Thomas R. Pegram

Publisher: University of Illinois Press

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 9780252018473

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Thomas Pegram shows how progressives won certain battles even as they lost the war. The progressives popularized their various reform ideas but failed to control the all important process of shepherding these reforms through the legislative and bureaucratic systems. The largely unspoken irony of the progressive movement was that, in attempting to open up the political process, it fostered more economical and efficient forms of government. Eventually, this economy and efficiency led to the entrenchment of party bosses.


The Journal of Hygiene

The Journal of Hygiene

Author: George Henry Falkiner Nuttall

Publisher:

Published: 1908

Total Pages: 800

ISBN-13:

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Issues for 1906-17 include reports on plague investigation in India, 6th-10th reports; and Plague supplements, no. 1-5; and Parasitology v.1-5.


The Age of Smoke

The Age of Smoke

Author: Frank Uekötter

Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Pre

Published: 2009-02-15

Total Pages: 361

ISBN-13: 0822973502

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In 1880, coal was the primary energy source for everything from home heating to industry. Regions where coal was readily available, such as the Ruhr Valley in Germany and western Pennsylvania in the United States, witnessed exponential growth-yet also suffered the greatest damage from coal pollution. These conditions prompted civic activism in the form of "anti-smoke" campaigns to attack the unsightly physical manifestations of coal burning. This early period witnessed significant cooperation between industrialists, government, and citizens to combat the smoke problem. It was not until the 1960s, when attention shifted from dust and grime to hazardous invisible gases, that cooperation dissipated, and protests took an antagonistic turn.The Age of Smoke presents an original, comparative history of environmental policy and protest in the United States and Germany. Dividing this history into distinct eras (1880 to World War I, interwar, post-World War II to 1970), Frank Uekoetter compares and contrasts the influence of political, class, and social structures, scientific communities, engineers, industrial lobbies, and environmental groups in each nation. He concludes with a discussion of the environmental revolution, arguing that there were indeed two environmental revolutions in both countries: one societal, where changing values gave urgency to air pollution control, the other institutional, where changes in policies tried to catch up with shifting sentiments.Focusing on a critical period in environmental history, The Age of Smoke provides a valuable study of policy development in two modern industrial nations, and the rise of civic activism to combat air pollution. As Uekoetter's work reveals, the cooperative approaches developed in an earlier era offer valuable lessons and perhaps the best hope for future progress.