Vaccination in America

Richard J. Altenbaugh is Adjunct Professor at the University of Pittsburgh, USA, and former Visiting Fellow at St. Edmund's College, University of Cambridge, UK. His most recent book is The Last Children’s Plague: Poliomyelitis, Disability, and Twentieth-Century American Culture.

“This could be a book for parents whose children would be vaccinated. … More widely, it is a book for practitioners who have to cope with parental refusal of vaccination, historians of social medicine and, possibly, students of the history of medicine thanks to its interdisciplinary approach combining bioethics, education, research, and public health policies.” (Alain Touwaide, Doody's Book Reviews, May 31, 2019)

• 1. Introduction: To Vaccinate, or Not to Vaccinate.- I. Diseases, Death, and Disability.- 2. Living on the Edge.- 3. Bad Odors, Nasty Dust, and Dangerous Bugs.- 4. Not My Child!.- II. Friendly Persuasion.- 5. Invisible Bugs Are Bad for You.- 6. Schoolhouse Medicine.- 7. Capstone Events.- III. Ethical Authority?.- 8. Mistake and Misdeeds.- 9. Blood.- 10. A Moral Compass?.- 11. A Problematic Process.- 12. School Days.- IV. Line Up and Roll Up Your Sleeves.- 13. Operation Needle.- 14. The Complexities of Mass Immunization Culture.- V. Intellectual Authority?.- 15. A Little Knowledge Is a Dangerous Thing.- 16. What Is Science?