Making the MexiRican City
To commemorate National Hispanic Heritage Month, this week's review analyzes the community-building and activist practices Mexican and Puerto Rican migrants employed in 20th-century Michigan.
Posted on in Review of the Week
Fighting the First Wave
How have countries around the world responded to the COVID-19 pandemic? Why wasn't there a more uniform, collective response? What can we learn for the future?
Posted on July 12, 2021 in Review of the Week
Fighting the First Wave: Why the Coronavirus Was Tackled So Differently across the Globe
Baldwin, Peter. Cambridge, 2021
385p bibl index, 9781316518335 $24.95, 9781009006484 $20.00
Baldwin (Univ. of California, Los Angeles) details how nations responded differently to COVID-19’s global outbreak during the initial months of the pandemic. While he focuses on governmental public health actions in North America, Western Europe, and Asia, Baldwin also addresses a range of coronavirus responses in other parts of the world. In addition to this international overview, Baldwin’s text provides historical context surrounding the pandemic response within individual nations. For example, he suggests that Sweden’s decision to leave open some schools and businesses and not require masks was inconsistent with the public health track record of previous Swedish governments. Still, Baldwin concludes that no nation was prepared to handle a public health emergency in which all population demographics were at risk. He adds that COVID-19’s rapid diffusion vividly demonstrates the degree to which all countries are epidemiologically interdependent. Commendably, this well-written book is accessible to all audiences. It is an excellent companion to Debora MacKenzie’s COVID-19: The Pandemic That Never Should Have Happened and How to Stop the Next One (2020). The detailed index and Baldwin’s extensive notes are of particular value. This will be a welcome text for use in university public health and history programs as well as an informative resource for general readers.
Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.
Reviewer: R. A. Logan, emeritus, University of Missouri–Columbia
Subject: Science & Technology – Health Sciences
Choice Issue: Oct 2021
Enjoy this week’s review? Check out more reviews of Science & Technology titles:
- Natural Encounters: Biking, Hiking, and Birding through the Seasons
- Nature Underfoot: Living with Beetles, Crabgrass, Fruit Flies, and Other Tiny Life Around Us
- The Sirens of Mars: Searching for Life on Another World
- Birds in Winter: Surviving the Most Challenging Season
- Spacefarers: How Humans Will Settle the Moon, Mars, and Beyond
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