The Making of a Pandemic: Social, Political, and Psychological Perspectives on Covid-19

by John Ehrenreich

Overview

The Making of a Pandemic provides a systematic account of how societal and psychological forces shaped the Covid-19 pandemic. The first part focuses on how biological and societal factors interact to create a pandemic. The second part explores how characteristics of the American economy, the American approach to public health, and domestic and international inequality combined to prolong the pandemic, hamper mitigation efforts, and arouse opposition to cooperation with public health measures. The third part examines the psychological processes that led to resistance to efforts to mitigate the pandemic and linked the resistance to right-wing ideologies. The book concludes by looking at the limits of the technical and medical reforms others have proposed to protect us from repetitions of the Covid-19 disaster and by calling for a “deep confrontation” with the societal and psychological factors that created and shaped the pandemic.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783031049637
Publisher:	Springer International Publishing
Publication date:	05/30/2022
Series:	SpringerBriefs in Psychology
Edition description:	1st ed. 2022
Pages:	150
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

John Ehrenreich has doctorates in biology and psychology. He is Professor Emeritus at SUNY-Old Westbury, where he taught for many years. He has written widely on issues at the intersection of biology, psychology, sociology, and social policy. His previous books include The American Health Empire: Power, Profits, and Politics (with Barbara Ehrenreich and the staff of Health-PAC), The Cultural Crisis of Modern Medicine (edited), The Altruistic Imagination: A History of Social Work and Social Policy in the United States, and Third Wave Capitalism: How Money, Power, and the Pursuit of Self Interest Have Imperiled the American Dream.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION.- Chapter 2. The Revenge of the Microbes.- Chapter 3. From Outbreak to Pandemic.- Chapter 4. Two Peas in a Pod: Pandemic and Global Warming.- Chapter 5. The Great Tradeoff: Public Health vs. the Economy.- Chapter 6. The Cost of Inequality.- Chapter 7. The Crooked Timber of Humanity.- Chapter 8. The Fourth Horseman.

Editorial Reviews

Too many of us come to the topic of the pandemic both weary and entrenched in our views based on how it’s affected us and the people we know. Ehrenreich’s worldview isn’t well-hidden in his telling of events. If you share this view, the book will confirm what you believe, and it is chock full of additional data for your arsenal.” (Andy Slavitt, The Washington Post, washingtonpost.com, July 29, 2022)

From the Publisher