Ebook: The Edinburgh Companion to the Politics of American Health

Examines the diverse, and often conflicted, political status of health in the United States from World War II to Covid-19

• Explores the histories, cultures, policies and technologies of American health and medicine as they have developed over a 75-year period
• Brings together 45 experts from the US, Canada and the UK working across the fields of medicine, health policy, political and social history, political science, environmental studies, law, and cultural studies
• Uses the lenses of class, poverty, race, gender, sexuality and locality to study the concepts, policies and lived realities of U.S. healthcare and medical treatment
• Explores key controversies in American health, including global health and new technologies

By emphasising the plurality of health experiences, and balancing national and transnational perspectives with the lived realities of diverse communities, this groundbreaking collection expands far beyond biomedical conceptions of health. Together, the contributors take a multi-layered view of the politics of US healthcare by examining it from historical, cultural, medical, sociological, legal, ethical and environmental perspectives.

Chapters consider major health institutions and the federal policies that guide them; the intersection between health and social movements; the contours of health and illness with respect to race, gender, sexuality, age and region; and the US’s often-conflicted role in global health governance.