Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2021 -

The COVID-19 pandemic sparked renewed interest in life-threatening communicable diseases. Mackenbach (Erasmus Univ. Medical Center, Rotterdam) wrote this history of European population health before the pandemic emerged, but the book's organizing principles, theoretical perspective, and methods provide tools with which readers may better understand the rise and fall of diseases and other causes of death across time and space. The text analyzes morbidity and mortality for Europe from the early 18th century through the late 2010s. In three sections, the book covers changes in life expectancy, the rise and fall of mortality and morbidity, and reasons for changes in population health. A second organizing principle is the three phases in European social development: pre-industrial, industrializing, and affluent. Mackenbach addresses causality in terms of the relative and changing influences of sociocultural change, public health actions, and accessible health care. Judicious incorporation of illustrations, including graphs, poster reproductions, and photographs, aptly demonstrate the trends and societal understandings of disease presented in the text. Other strengths of this excellent book include its meticulous and extensive documentation, transparent discussion of what data is and is not available, analysis of prevailing theoretical explanations, use of supplementary tables, and Mackenbach's clear and compelling writing.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals. General readers.

Dutton (Northern Arizona Univ.) provides an insightful read that every American should take time to review. Perhaps all health care consumers could learn how to improve their health, and US employers could gain insight on how to increase job satisfaction and reward. A huge part of poor health outcomes in the US, as seen by this reviewer (a nurse practitioner/professor), is that the system's reimbursement process is not fair and does not generate feedback to providers and patients when someone's health outcomes are documented. US providers must constantly worry about litigious patients even when federal or state benefits pay their health care bills. The book points out multiple advantages providers in Europe enjoy, as do European patients, who are considered responsible for their own health. As Dutton argues, the US should adopt a more wellness- and community-focused health system so that all can experience quality, equitable, and accessible health care. This reviewer agrees that more programs to improve social determinants of health must be instituted and that the US Medicaid and Medicare programs should be adjusted so that people receiving such benefits do not see them only as entitlement. Americans need to step up to protect their own health and not just expect handouts.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

In this sparkling odyssey through the medical and cultural aspects of breathing, pulmonary scientist Williams (Univ. of South Wales) touches on the evolution of animal and human respiration, the mystical "pneuma" of ancient civilizations, revolutionary insights into pulmonary physiology, and the centuries-long quest for effective diagnostic, preventive, and therapeutic solutions to "breathlessness." Breathing is about gases: good gas (oxygen--but not too much of it), bad gases (carbon monoxide and coal gas), displaced gas (nitrogen), and evil gases (mustard and nerve gases). But it is also about the path from a newborn's cry to a dying man's last breath. Along the way, readers meet vague miasmas, industrial pollution, the ravages of "consumption" (tuberculosis), pandemic influenza, the gospel of fresh air, iron lungs (poliomyelitis), the great London smog of 1952, the deadly toll of tobacco, and, on a lighter note, the evils of (Victorian) corseting practice. Williams elucidates the dangers of breathing at high altitude (on mountaintops, in outer space) and in the depths (mines, oceans), and the psychological and medical applications of patterned breathing. A final chapter is devoted to breathing imagery and metaphor in film, literature, and everyday speech. Breathing is a model of clarity and a storehouse of information and anecdote appropriate for students, researchers, and medical practitioners alike.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

Global health experts anticipate that coming epidemics will have two major causes: the formation of virulent, recombinant strains of pathogenic microbes and an accelerating rise in the number and scope of antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) pathogens. The occurrence of the first event increases the likelihood of the second. Even without emergent novel pathogens, however, AMR pathogens will expand, adding substantially to a population's burden of disease (measured in terms of DALYs: disability-adjusted life years) and increasing its health care costs. This volume focuses on the European Union and high-income countries, but the contributors' economic and policy insights are globally applicable. Controlling the growth of AMR pathogens requires effective monitoring of antibiotic usage. By itself, controlling usage is challenging; achieving it is necessary but not sufficient. The eight articles brought together here widen the examination of AMR to include the role of civil society and the burden of political responsibility, the application of cost-effective vaccines against resistant bacterial strains, and the use of antibiotics in agriculture and food production. The contributors' essays are exhaustively researched and clearly argued. Policy analysts should turn to this book for guidance as they begin to formulate a resolution of threats posed by AMR.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals.

The Lyme bacterium, transmitted by a tick, causes systemic disease and a distinctive rash, and yields to adequate antibiotic treatment, which kills the germs and prevents complications. The treatment is considered effective, the germ eradicated. Many patients, however, believe that they suffer from persistent infection (or "chronic Lyme") due to delayed, inadequate, or failed treatment. "Mainstream medicine" and medical insurance providers categorically deny the existence of chronic Lyme. Patients, advocacy groups, and "Lyme-literate physicians" believe as strongly that the condition is real, disabling, and requires long-term treatment. Dumes (women's and gender studies, Univ. of Michigan) used an anthropological and ethnographic methodology to illuminate the deep divide between mainstream medicine and "Lyme-literate medicine." She shadowed physicians and interviewed patients and practitioners to elucidate the controversy, and in the process illuminated the challenge of applying "evidence-based medicine." In five chapters she "maps the controversy," explains treatment and prevention, gives voice to sufferers, and examines chronic Lyme in the context of evidence-based medicine. This book is valuable for its illustration of how some medical paradigms become mainstream, while others disappear. Chronic Lyme, whatever it is, holds up a mirror to evidence-based medicine. Dumes's ethnographic approach provides voluminous details, new insights, and a refreshing alternative to much of the existing literature on the Lyme controversy.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

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.

Gillespie (Center for the Study of Religion, Univ. of California, Los Angeles) has written a well-informed, very clear analysis of the competing models for transplant organ procurement and distribution. The book is much more than this, however: the question of a market for organs is one of the best examples of the extension of concepts from neoliberalism into almost every aspect of contemporary moral life, and Gillespie explores this extension. Public moral deliberation, where it survives, increasingly turns to economic value as the deciding factor. As Gillespie points out, the dominance of individual liberty as expressed through market privatization can help us understand what we value in general and thus what sort of society we are or want to be. As he puts it, the fact "that the market has become the organ that filters value in the body politic is of unprecedented historical implication." And he takes a clear stand in this debate, asserting that "... the (at)traction of buying and selling human organs is a symptom of the body politic being sick." Students entering the health sciences should be strongly urged to read this book, and professionals already working in the field should find it a compelling read as well.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals.

Overcoming Addiction provides a reading experience simple in its clarity and provocative in the multilevel depth of its discussion on substance use disorder and the models that have come to be known as treatments. Bioethics commentator Pence expertly covers seven different approaches/models for understanding and treating various types of addiction, ranging from Alcoholics Anonymous to applied neuroscience discoveries. In a well-crafted text that combines clearly defined, fact-based pros and cons with philosophical discussion on addiction, he also opens up discourse on the human conditions that support substance use and abuse. In addition to addressing the familiar legal and illegal substances, Pence explores the role of big pharma in addictive disorders and the near future as marijuana is increasingly legalized. The book is refreshingly void of inherent bias, focusing on facts, theoretical foundations, and philosophy. Pence begins by introducing the complex of myths and facts that surround addictive behaviors and concludes with ten insights for fighting this "epidemic." Each chapter is expertly written, provides new perspective on existing models of treatment, and ends in a summary that might induce critical re-reading. The presentation is clear enough to support upper-level undergraduate and graduate coursework and will be helpful to any individual or professional considering working with people with substance use disorders.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

The Routledge International Handbook of Fat Studies, edited by Pause (Massey Univ., New Zealand) and artist/activist Taylor (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonya_Renee_Taylor), offers a unique blend of perspectives detailing the issues fatness presents in contemporary society. The text provides global definitions of fat and theories regarding fatness from numerous disciplines, giving due attention to the intersections of fat with sex, race, disability, sexual orientation, and age. This volume also explores fat as a public health issue, particularly in relation to stigma and body respect. Through the combined voices of 28 contributing authors who are themselves scholars and activists, the handbook provides a valuable resource for academics and general readers who need deeper understanding of the issues surrounding and related to fat, looking especially at the origins and development of attitudes regarding fatness as well as the current treatment of those inhabiting fat bodies and considering how people might serve as better advocates and come to view fatness as a social justice issue. This text will become essential reading for students and professionals in public health, sociological, psychological, and health care disciplines.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

Goldenberg (Univ. of Guelph) presents a fascinating discussion on the complexity of and interrelationships among the myriad factors that result in vaccine hesitancy and refusal. She effectively refutes the idea that such behaviors stem from an inability to understand the science behind vaccines. Rather, she posits that science and public health practitioners should understand that what she terms a "crisis of trust" is the axis around which public skepticism revolves. Thus, it follows that presenting corrective facts to vaccine resistors is not met with successful change. Detailed discussion explaining the disconnect between a parent's concern over their individual child's health, as compared to medical science and its public health communicators addressing the health of whole populations, sets the stage for the following chapters. Other topics covered include knowledge comprehension, cognitive biases, cultural cognition, and politicized science. The spread of mistrust, Goldenberg argues, can be traced to social media discourse, experiences of medical racism, and the commercialization of science. This book will be an important acquisition for academic institutions with a premedical, medical, or public health program.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.