New Titles: Medicine

Between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, the Mississippi River curls around an old plantation thick with trees, with a stately white manor house at its heart. Locals knew it as Carville--the site of the only leprosarium in the continental United States from 1894 until 1999, where generations of afflicted Americans were isolated, often until death. While experts today know that leprosy is not nearly as contagious as once feared, there remains a virulent stigma around those who suffer from it. Pam Fessler tells the story of Carville's patients against the backdrop of America's slowly shifting attitudes toward those cast aside as "others." She also reveals how patients rallied together with an unlikely team of nuns, researchers, and doctors to find a cure for the disease, and to fight the insidious stigma that surrounded it. With original interviews and newly discovered archival material, Fessler presents an essential history of one of America's most shameful secrets.

While most Americans participate in vaccination, for a small number of Americans, vaccination is perceived as a threat and possibly even a conspiracy. This volume looks at the history of vaccination as well as the regulation and administrative processes surrounding the creation and dissemination of vaccines. The cost and availability of vaccines in American communities is examined, as well as laws regarding childhood vaccination and access to schooling and other public facilities.