To quote Thomas Jefferson, “A morsel of genuine history is a thing so rare as to be always valuable”. This book reviews 10 areas of public health, each with one chapter written by a scientist (mostly based at Atlanta’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and one by a historian or social scientist. Focusing on epidemiological and social issues, this collation offers extensively referenced information on health trends and a window onto the unprecedented societal changes occurring over the last century in the USA — a valuable enterprise from public health and historical perspectives.

Sections on occupational health and vehicular safety, for example, highlight trends in morbidity and mortality and also fundamental shifts in living and working conditions, with communities becoming dependent …