The Contemporary History of Public Health in New York City

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The purpose of this book is to document and analyze the public health challenges, successes and controversies in New York City since the 1960s. Drawing on archival research and oral history interviews, I will map the contested terrain of municipal public health and examine the ways that health professionals, government agencies, civil society institutions, activists, and other stakeholders have responded to the city's health needs during a time of rapid and intense social and political change. The book that will be based on this research will offer both a dramatic narrative and analysis of the political, legal, and ethical issues at the core of public health practice. , The specific aims of this study and the resulting book are: To describe the most significant public health issues in New York City over the past four decades and the institutional and public responses to them. To explicate the social and political processes by which public health policies and practices in New York City have been created, implemented, and contested. To analyze how historically contingent forces, including changing political and economic climates and the actions of particular individuals, have produced public health successes and failures. To use the experiences of New York City as a lens for understanding the broad challenges facing urban public health in the United States. The central argument of the book is that internal and external pressures propelled the field of urban public health into an extended period of crisis in the 1960s. Shifting epidemiological patterns, increased federal expenditures on curative medical technologies, the rise of patient and consumer activism, and the economic retrenchment of cities have all profoundly influenced the practice of public health. These changes are crystallized in the contemporary history of public health in New York City. Building upon a substantial body of already completed research into the history of the New York City Department of Health, I will conduct oral history interviews and investigate archival materials of the health department, community-based organizations, and other government agencies. The history documented in this book will provide insights into conceptual and practical questions about the mission of the public health profession, the causes and consequences of illness among urban populations, and the role of the government in guarding the common welfare.