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camillatd 's review for:
Everything is Tuberculosis
by John Green
hopeful
informative
inspiring
I really enjoyed this, which feels strange to say about a book entirely concerned with disease, poverty, and injustice. The book is chock-full of trademark John Green earnestness, and listening to the audio felt like a long and particularly impassioned Crash Course episode.
In 200 pages, Green covers a lot of ground: the history of tuberculosis treatment, the basics of global health inequities, the historical linkages of colonialism, racism, and systemic deprivation, and a loving biography of one young man's life as a TB patient. He also covers fashion, Adirondack chairs, New Mexican statehood, cowboy hats, trans doctors of the early 20th century, and the romantic poets. Because this is fairly short, and, obviously, not an academic text, some of the analysis is a little thin, but that felt okay. This isn't a book for epidemiologists, it's for us. It's a call to see and confront our shared humanity in the face of deprivation and crisis.
As someone with an academic background in the global health field, it called to mind bigger conversations about the social determinants of health, cost effectiveness, and stigma. As a person who deeply values social and political engagement, it made me think about how we see, compartmentalize, and talk about suffering, from TB patients to long Covid to the AIDS crisis to state-funded famine in Palestine. I hope this makes readers want to care more, to confront suffering, and to engage more deeply in these conversations.
In 200 pages, Green covers a lot of ground: the history of tuberculosis treatment, the basics of global health inequities, the historical linkages of colonialism, racism, and systemic deprivation, and a loving biography of one young man's life as a TB patient. He also covers fashion, Adirondack chairs, New Mexican statehood, cowboy hats, trans doctors of the early 20th century, and the romantic poets. Because this is fairly short, and, obviously, not an academic text, some of the analysis is a little thin, but that felt okay. This isn't a book for epidemiologists, it's for us. It's a call to see and confront our shared humanity in the face of deprivation and crisis.
As someone with an academic background in the global health field, it called to mind bigger conversations about the social determinants of health, cost effectiveness, and stigma. As a person who deeply values social and political engagement, it made me think about how we see, compartmentalize, and talk about suffering, from TB patients to long Covid to the AIDS crisis to state-funded famine in Palestine. I hope this makes readers want to care more, to confront suffering, and to engage more deeply in these conversations.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical content
Moderate: Racism, Colonisation
Minor: Transphobia