The Cure for Everything: The Epic Struggle for Public Health and a Radical Vision for Human Thriving

by Michelle A. Williams, Linda Marsa

An upcoming book to be published by Penguin Random House.

Genres: Nonfiction, Health, Science, Politics, History, Health Care, Audiobook

416 pages, Hardcover

Published February 3, 2026

Reviews

[Cindy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have such mixed feelings about this one. Let me start with the good.
I was very engaged and interested when Williams writes about history. The stories about public health heroes like Joseph Goldenberger (pellagra), W.E.B. DuBois (statistics on the life expectancy of African-Americans), and Alice Hamilton (industrial workplace dangers) were new to me and very inspiring.
Most of the book, though, is about racism, sexism, and politics and how these have impacted public health. I understand that all of these things are important parts of the story, but I felt uneasy as I read and I eventually figured out why. Although Williams is at the opposite end of the political spectrum from Fox News, I got a very Fox News vibe as I read. Opinions are stated as facts. Anyone who does anything Williams doesn't agree with is a villian and an idiot who is acting out of self-interest alone. Just as when I hear Fox News, I was often thinking, "I would have to fact-check this before I believe it." I don't think Williams is dishonest, but maybe so passionate about her subject that she isn't particularly objective.
One more thing - Williams often includes the religious affiliation of the people she criticizes. In most of the cases I don't think this supports her arguments, so I can't think of a good-faith reason for her including this information.

[Albert Li · Rating 5 out of 5]

written for a non medical background

[Ellie S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really eye opening!

[Fanchen Bao · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is extremely important to teach the history of public health. While it might be exaggerated to say public health is the cure for everything, it is not too far from the truth. Proactive prevention always triumphs over reactive medication.

Interesting Quotes -- Part I

Part II is available on Medium.

To offset declining sales in the U.S. due to growing health concerns, the company strongly promoted formula feeding in poorer nations, and shrewdly linked using formula with social mobility, a tactic that targeted mothers and families who were aspiring to better their lot and climb the social ladder.

--p3. I am not surprised at all. If my memory serves me correctly, this is far from the only Capitalism deeds committed by Nestlé. They are kind of infamous of putting profiteering above everything else, moral and ethical standards included.

...it’s worth remembering that clean air and water, vaccines, safe workplaces, unadulterated food and drugs, and all the other triumphs of public health, from the conquest of smallpox, polio, and other childhood diseases to safer streets, didn’t just happen. These victories came after long uphill fights against the determined opposition of monied elites and their political minions.

--p13. A lot of tragedies happen because we take good things for granted and forgetting how hard it once was to fight for these good things in the first place. Since the next generation has not suffered from the same ills as the past generations, they are more likely to repeat the mistakes. This seems to be both a blessing (not bound by past memories, we can more easily break new grounds) and curse on human kind (history repeats itself all the time).

Corrupt city officials stole the funds appropriated to clean the streets and relied instead on roaming herds of thousands of wild pigs to eat the trash. Local residents looked after the pigs, which they would later slaughter for food, and city streets were transformed into giant feeding troughs.

--p29. New York in the 1840s.

Despite impassioned pleas by prominent physicians to warn the public, the Board of Health and Mayor Bowne insisted that these cases were nothing out of the ordinary, presumably because of fears that the news would trigger a massive business shutdown and disrupt economic stability.

--p30. This referred to the cholera outbreak in the summer of 1832 in New York. The similarity to some officials' response to COVID almost two centuries later is uncanny. To a certain extent, we have not really progressed intellectually and morally despite the vast advancement in material goods and wealth.

By that time, a coalition of progressive physician reformers, humanitarians, publicly minded civil servants, and democratically accountable politicians were pushing for even more profound and ambitious public health projects to clean up cities and rid them of disease.

--p32. "progressive", "humanitarians", "publicly minded", 'democratically accountable". If there are ever dogwhistles for the progressive left, these terms must rank pretty high on the list.

In Seneca Village, African Americans created a safe oasis, a grassroots, poor people’s public health movement—and a brilliant example of how the collective action of communities to build healthful spaces from the ground up was just as essential to improving people’s lives as the costly top-down projects generated by the Sanitary Movement.
...
But Seneca Village was demolished to make way for Central Park.

--p38. A sad yet not uncommon sad end to many good things nurtured by the black community.

Out of sheer necessity, the Civil War became a watershed in the evolution of public health. In four short years, the crucible of war radically transformed the practice of nineteenth-century medicine. The policies and techniques that the military institutionalized became standard practice after the war, ushering in an entirely new era in medicine.

--p48. I do not like this notion but more often than not, war is the best catalyst to move a society forward, because it is the only time when antiquated traditions, nepotism, and the old guards are smashed in the face by reality and science-, logic,- and merit-based reasoning has the upper hand. Imagine if we can do that all the time, not just sporadically during wars and not having to pay the hefty price of human lives.

Largely because of WCAR’s efforts, the Civil War marked a turning point in the profession of nursing: Over the course of the conflict, more than 3,000 women served as paid nurses (although some estimates put that figure as high as 15,000), which began the transformation of nursing to a female-dominated field.

--p49. WCAR stands for Women’s Central Association of Relief for the Sick and Wounded of the Army.

In the South, slavery and a sclerotic feudalistic economy undermined even token relief efforts. Municipal governments in the South were controlled by this wealthy planter class, who refused to pay to clean up the region’s few cities. (Sanitary reforms weren’t implemented until the early twentieth century in most states of the former Confederacy.)

--p56. This is one of the biggest downsides of unchecked Capitalism: capitalists are so blinded by short-term profits that they'd rather make an extra buck today and lose many times more in the future than taking slightly less profit today and investing in a future where they can not only make more money but also create a happier world for everybody.

Rather than asking the powerful moneyed classes to pay for the safety-net infrastructure projects that were being constructed in Northern cities, civic leaders thought the best solution to combat yellow fever was to let the workers become sickened and acclimated—or die....

...we got acclimated and we survived so you have to do this for yourself.” This reinforces this immune hierarchy and is a major disincentive for the political elites to spend any kind of tax money on drainage, sanitation or quarantine because they believed that nothing could stop yellow fever.

--p60. Not dissimilar to pass immigrants disassembling the bridge to prevent new immigrants of chasing the same dreams.

"There was this whole sub industry of getting people “safely” through the acclimation process. In all of the slave marts, in the auction houses on Esplanade Street in New Orleans, medical doctors were on retainer so they could be called upon if someone got sick before they were sold. The death of an enslaved person wasn’t a human tragedy, but a problem for their bottom line. And a lot of prominent doctors in New Orleans moonlighted and made extra money doing this slave auction health care. Yellow fever was an engine of wealth creation for every medical professional."

--p60. This is a quote within a quote.

Echoing the sentiments of others, Chapin believed that public health should focus on finding germs and controlling diseases; time and money spent on cleaning cities and upgrading the harsh environments that made people sick was wasted. Civic infrastructure investments were scaled back.

--p89. Treating the diseases individually most of the time is much less cost effective than improving the living conditions to prevent the diseases from happening in the first place. But the latter would essentially put a large dent in the social hierarchy (what is social hierarchy if the ones with a higher status cannot live a much more sanitary life than those with a lower status?). So, the people with the power to improve civic infrastructure had no incentive to see it through.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the acceptance of germ theory disproportionately benefited whites.

--p90

... the costly infrastructure projects that benefitted populations were largely abandoned—which effectively left the most vulnerable even further behind. Bacteriology became dominant, rather than a subfield of public health, which was now focused on laboratories where bacteria were incubated, rather than on the big-picture public health perspective.

--p91.

His research clearly showed that social and economic factors were responsible for the poor diets that led to the pellagra outbreak. This also illuminates why public health is such a big tent: So many disciplines and professions play roles in it.

--p93. Referring to Dr. Joseph Goldberger discovering that poor diets, or in other words being poor in general, not bacteria, was the cause of a disease.

Worse yet, his research ruffled Southern sensitivities in a region still smarting from the defeats of the Lost Cause half a century earlier; they resented the implicit criticism of the state of their economy, especially from a Northerner and an immigrant to boot.

--p94. By discovering pellagra as a nutritional disease, Goldberger was seen as calling out the South as being worse overall compared to the North. Something as impartial as a scientific discovery can be easily twisted with a political edge. As Marsellus Wallace once said, "That's pride fucking with you. Fuck pride. Pride only hurts, it never helps".

It was more acceptable for pellagra to be caused by an infectious agent, which was the dominant disease theory at the time, rather than the result of poverty and a poor diet. This inverse hierarchy, in which laboratory sciences outranked social, environmental, and behavioral sciences, resulted in preventable deaths.

--p95.

Over the last century, these politicians learned that their anti-science messaging plays well with their constituents.

--p97. As President Trump used to brag in his rally, he loved the “poorly educated”.

Researchers looked at what’s called excess death rates—the percent increase in deaths above pre-Covid levels—between those registered as either Republicans or Democrats in counties in Florida and Ohio. Before vaccines, there was a 1.6-percentage-point difference between the red and the blue, with Republicans having a negligibly higher death rate. Once vaccines were available, that divide sharply widened to 10.4 percentage points.

--p98. If the author felt a bit giddy about this, I think it is misplaced. We should never underestimate the level of apathy on the ultra right.

His seminal study became arguably the first in the world to meticulously document the effects of racism on health, and it laid the groundwork for our contemporary understanding of how social inequities, and not personal failings, are often largely responsible for communities facing dismal circumstances and poor health.

--p100. This refers to W.E.B. Du Bois. I was surprised that he started out as an epidemiologist.

What looks like laziness might be that people aren’t getting much sleep because they’re working two or three jobs.

--p101. This is a very important point that we tend to neglect when criticizing others as being “lazy”, “not studying hard”, etc. We tend to judge other people using ourselves as the bench mark, something like “if I can do this, why can’t you do that”. Well, people grow up and get exposed to different environments. Before we pass judgements, we must acknowledge that such differences could play a pivotal role in how people turn out.

Freedom, he maintained, “was actually poisonous to [the] happiness [of the Negro race].” While these declarations seem ludicrous today, Cartwright was considered a legitimate scientist.

--p105. This was a quote from Dr. Samuel Cartwright. While science itself is impartial, people who wield the power of “science” can and will corrupt it however it fits their needs.

In 1787, a decade after he helped write the Declaration of Independence, the second president published his widely read treatise Notes on the State of Virginia, in which he questioned whether enslaved people could ever be equal to whites, and advanced his theory that Blacks were inherently inferior, fit to be field hands and little else.

--p107. This was from Thomas Jefferson.

It started with the coastal African slave trade, with a death rate of at least 25 percent, combined with an estimated 15 to 50 percent slave mortality during the voyage across the Atlantic to the New World, followed by a “breaking-in period” death rate of 30 to 50 percent.

--p116. Slave trade is one of, if not the most, evil activity humans have come up with.

Clinicians treating infectious diseases, for example, were only battling a single disease-causing pathogen, in direct contrast to social scientists like Du Bois, who were looking at a more holistic web of the root causes of poor health and premature mortality.

--p118.

For decades, a key measure for calculating kidney function was the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), which measures how well the kidneys are filtering toxins. This metric had been automatically adjusted to give a higher number for Black patients because of their race. But we now understand that so-called “race” is a social construct, not a biological distinction, and that using this incorrect algorithm meant that perhaps hundreds of thousands of Black Americans’ kidneys seemed healthier than they really were.

--p121. Clearly the people who initially set up this type of metric have never actually made the measurement to verify that black people should be given a different threshold. They just made something up and went along with it. The utter indifference to the wellbeing of black people never ceases to baffle me.

These workers brought deadly substances home to their families in their poison-saturated clothing. Safeguards were virtually nonexistent because the endless supply of mostly destitute immigrant laborers were viewed as collateral damage, not worth the cost of protection.

--p131. A not too surprising outcome of unchecked run-away Capitalism.

Industrialists’ attitude in the United States, she later wrote, was that if workers thought their jobs were too hazardous, they could quit.

--p135. From Alice Hamilton, the apathy and short-sightedness of unchecked run-away Capitalism.

Yet less than two days after the attack, based on no data whatsoever, Rudy Giuliani, then New York City’s mayor, told reporters that the financial district was open for business, and urged everyone “to go back to normal” because the air around Ground Zero was “safe as far as we can tell, with respect to chemical and biological agents.”
…
Nothing, of course, could have been further from the truth. Whistleblowers from the CDC and the EPA, who fired off repeated warnings that the air was toxic, were largely ignored by George W. Bush administration officials.

--p153. Another premonition of what happened during COVID.

But the Reagan White House’s most egregious failure was its glacial response to the AIDS epidemic, which allowed the outbreak to escalate out of control, killing off nearly an entire generation of young gay men.
…
In fact, any research that had a whiff of sexuality was suppressed by the religious right, even during an epidemic of a fatal sexually transmitted disease.

--p158. Let me put on my tin-foil hat and claim that this was not a bug but a feature.

However, any meaningful studies about the causes of gun violence and research into effective strategies to prevent it were derailed for more than a generation with the passage in 1996 of the Dickey Amendment, which banned the use of federal funds to do research that would “advocate or promote gun control.”

--p162.

What was equally unconscionable is that doctors thwarted the men at every turn when effective treatments were offered in other settings; they stopped authorities from giving them antibiotics when they were drafted into the service and prevented them from participating in government-sponsored disease-eradication clinics after the war.

--p175. Referring to the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. I’d say it was even worse than war crime.

In the wake of these revelations, a class-action suit was filed on behalf of the men in the study, and a $9 million out-of-court settlement was reached in the case. Congress passed legislation that established strict rules mandating institutional review boards and informed consent to prevent the exploitation of human subjects in research studies.

--p176.

It’s more dangerous for a woman to give birth in the United States—a country that spends nearly 20 percent of its GDP on health care and claims to be a world power—than in Saudi Arabia or Bahrain, countries where women are so severely constrained that they can only be seen as second-class citizens.

--p184.

The overturning of Roe v. Wade in June of 2022, and the institution of draconian restrictions on abortion access in nineteen states across the nation, criminalize abortion even in cases of rape and incest, subjecting pregnant people and abortion providers to heavy fines, suspension, and even imprisonment. Not only is this unspeakably cruel, but it accelerates a public health crisis already in the making because the people who will bear its consequences are poor women, who already face significant challenges.

--p193. A broad ban on abortion without any wiggle room to accommodate the messiness of real life is not a good policy. Several women have already died because of the draconian abortion ban.

[Lili Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative read on how America has dealt with various health crises for the better, but also for the worse (e.g., how we still lag in terms of longevity).

Notable lines:

“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhuman.”-MLK Jr.

“What this means in practice is that where we live, work, and play and the places that we spend most of our time, in our neighborhoods and our workplaces, have the most influence on our health.”

“We feed billions of dollars into a medical system that emphasizes rescue care-exorbitantly expensive high-tech acute care once we’re already sick-but we starve the public-health initiatives that keep us healthy, prevent disease, help us get better if we do fall ill, and genuinely save lives.”

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

[Richard Derus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: The inspiring story of how we overcame a history of infectious disease, poisonous environments, and early death and unlocked an explosion in human potential—and a vision for the work ahead to optimize human flourishing in the twenty-first century

Public health is an unusual discipline—a combination of science, sociology, politics, and logistics—with a simple goal: to create the conditions for human thriving. Despite a century of massive improvements in our health and quality of life, Americans—reeling from our disastrous pandemic response, epidemics of depression and isolation, and a failing healthcare system—are understandably distrustful of public health. But the true history of public health doesn’t just reveal one of the greatest feats in human history—our great escape from early death and infectious disease—it points toward a future of even greater improvements. The cure for everything? It’s all of us, working together for our collective health.

Michelle A. Williams, one of the country’s true innovators in public health, here tells the dramatic hidden history of public health in America: a story of how radicals and renegades—from W.E.B. Du Bois to Alice Hamilton to the activists of ACT UP—and the institutions and infrastructure we built together helped transform our world. As she takes readers through these dramatic stories, she draws out their deeper lessons. In the end, she makes a powerful argument that it is public health that should drive our country’s policies and politics—that if our policies fail to increase the health and well-being of everyone, regardless of race or economic status, we have failed as a society.

Here is a dramatic, sweeping history with a galvanizing vision for how we can address new threats and complete the unfinished business of public health.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: Public health, in thae definition fronted by Wikipedia, is "the science and art of preventing disease" and I have only one quibble with this as a jumping-off point for studying the subject: the phrase is rightly "art, and science, of preventing disease."

Firstly the art of medicine is best acknowledged as such; secondly the science is a fully separate topic the way I've punctuated it. Both are crucial, essential components of the field we call "public health," along with huge doses of politics and other coalition-building matters. Author Williams has an impressive and extensive CV that demonstrates her knowledge of public health is not solely theoretical. Make no mistake, in a career of fortyish years Author Williams has worked on tough health problems as far afield from academia as Haitian perinatal health.

A wad of notes, a premise that explains her career, a publisher excited to present the book. It's all gone right so far. How about the story she's telling?

I came into adulthood as AIDS was making itself known. I had an anti-vaxxer mother who lied to the schools I attended that of course I'd been vaccinated! I hadn't apart from polio when I was two, my father...polio survivor himself...had it done and her fury was loud and scary to tiny little me, and smallpox, when my doctor just did it and told her afterwards she was an idiot and to pull her head out of her ass (in those words) and remember her little brother's death (he had been her own doctor in childhood). No others, no MMR, no DPT, I got the diseases instead. My interest, then, in the topic is rooted in personal experiences I wouldn't wish on anyone not named Trump.

Author Williams speaks to me directly by speaking of the people, the movers and shakers, the subversive insurgents, the deeply humane empaths and the policy wonks who completely devoted themselves to bettering the lives of their fellow humans. I really expected the read to leave me more admiring than impressed. It left me both. I don't think the prose, largely (I assume) penned by health-focused journalist Linda Marsa, is noteworthy, in either elegance or lack thereof. It is precise, it is selected with an aim in mind to inform, to convey huge swaths of research without making the layperson feel talked down to or left behind. It is a successful effort. It is a hugely important story of one of the most astounding, and undercelebrated, achievements made by individual people moving massive inertial forces by dint of sheer stubborn refusal to give up. These many people who worked to find reasons for catastrophes of preventable deaths on a scale I myownself quail before are celebrated and named. Their contributions are brought to your eyes for what is very often the first time.

I give the book all five stars because I have not read a more succinct, informative treatment of a subject within the history of science that is more pleasantly conversational, less irritatingly superior of tone, or more urgent to grasp. We are witnessing an appalling and potentially lethal dismantling of a system dedicated to public health. It behooves each of us to learn as much as possible about how we achieved the heights before we are cast back into the depths. It will, I expect, create a lot of new advocates for our threatened public health system.

[Barbara Boyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Michelle A. Williams's "The Cure for Everything" should be required reading for anyone entering politics or healthcare. Williams offers a highly readable and compelling history of public health in the US that is both inspiring and frustrating. As a dual US-Italian citizen living in Italy, I benefit from a public health system that includes socialized medicine and some of the best care in the world. For many here in Europe, the US system is an aberration, akin to not having clean water or public education. And yet, as Williams illustrates in her history of public health, progress and improvements in the collective health have been made, in spite of the fear of and political contrarianism to any perception of “socialized” medicine—that unfortunately continues today. Time and again Williams attempts to answer the question of how the richest country in the world can have a declining life expectancy and often states, "we can do better." This book offers fascinating insight to US culture and history through the lens of public health.

Prompted by the erred response to COVID, which revealed cracks in the system, Williams set out to discover why public health failed after centuries of life-saving and lifespan lengthening inventions and progress. By understanding the history of public health, Williams demonstrates how the developments in public health, and a subsequent backlash against some, led to a failed response to the pandemic, much like failed responses to lead poisoning, women's and maternal health, and gun violence.

Public health is public wealth. Public health’s mission is to improve the health and wellbeing of all during their lifetimes, regardless of circumstances. Williams reports on the strides and the pitfalls made in public health since the Civil War to the present day, and throughout suggests solutions that require public health agencies and politicians to address poverty, gender biases, racism, obesity, and violence among others. Public health must treat the community and in turn treat the individual; in doing so everyone benefits.

The history is fascinating in showing how far the US has come in a relatively short time and how many times it had regressed. The impact of treating Union soldiers in the Civil War, combined with migration to the cities in the north made sanitation efforts a necessity for survival of the population, especially those who lived in poverty or close to it. The differences between North and South are evidenced in the management, the very structure and social mores the South fought to maintain undermined any efforts to treat the wounded and dying. Williams's description of yellow fever as an economic driver reminds me of pharmaceutical scandals and economic influences today.

While there was a peak in public health in the progressive era in the first two decades of the twentieth century, a regression happened when conservatives came into power. We still live with inheritance of choices made in the early 20th century, to focus on research rather than infrastructure. The social groups that suffered or benefitted then are the same that do today. Public health often favors white privileged (men) and punishes the poor and people of color (and women).

Williams doesn't stop at healthcare when considering public health. She includes studies of occupational hazards, industrial pollution, abuse, gun violence, and lack of first responder defense in crises. The title says it; if public health were offered to all in the US, it truly could be the cure for everything that ails the country.

Thank you to NetGalley and OneWorld for offering an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

#netgalley #thecureforeverything

[Off Service Book Recs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Public health is public wealth.

Public health is an unusual discipline—a combination of science, sociology, politics, and logistics—with a simple goal: to create the conditions for human thriving. But with each achievement of public health - mass vaccinations, the curing of previously deadly childhood illnesses, disease surveillance, and research which makes all of our lives better - there is still massive mistrust towards the American public health system. When looking at the crumbling health infrastructure, the poor pandemic response, and the ways in which socioeconomic barriers continue to restrict access to what care is available, it's easy to see why. The story of public health is the story of human history - our great escape from early death and infectious disease - and points toward a future of even greater improvements. The cure for everything? It’s all of us, working together for our collective health.

The dramatic hidden history of public health - 0ften overlooked or undervalued in both medicine and humanities classes - is in the of radicals and renegades; of institutions and infrastructure; and of the idea that if our policies fail to increase the health and well-being of everyone, regardless of race or economic status, we have failed as a society. Part deep dive, part memoir, part celebration-and-condemnation, and part radical call to action, "The Cure For Everything" is an essential text for the past, present, and future of a public interested in a healthy society.

It is such a treat to encounter a book which I know will be a top five read of the year so early in a new season of reading. This is exactly the kind of book I love to recommend on my page for those who are interested in nonfiction that is engaging; will teach you something you truly didn't know before; and that will motivate you to make changes back out in the real world. I read A LOT of medical and science history and there were things about American and global health history I had never even heard of "The Cure For Everything", which doesn't often happen and which I will now be deep-diving more in my free time. I loved the way the author brought together her own experiences, thoroughly-cited history, and the interplay of current/past events, social context, and the socioeconomic factors which shaped movements and policy (the good, the bad, and the ugly), and did it in a way which was engaging, page-turning, and both infuriating and inspiring, ad was both accessible enough science-wise for the lay reader and engaging for those who have a healthcare background.

In (unfortunately) expected times such as these, where the current ruling class seeks to drain every resource and dollar possible from a public health system that was already struggling, books like "The Cure for Everything" that bring together a broad picture of health and health policy; its successes and failures; and plans for how to make things better are essential. Healthcare is a human right - even if those in power will tell you otherwise - and a public that is well-educated, vaccinated, cared for, and healthy is a boon for all. I think this is a book everyone eligible to vote needs to read before the midterms this year, and is a great introduction into the beautiful and vital world of nonfiction reading for those who typically only read fiction titles. It's been a few weeks since I finished this book and I still think about it often and will absolutely be recommending it for years to come.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of the book deserves five stars. The core content is focused on a deeply true message: the work of public health is identifying the social and environmental problems and needs of a community and intervening to reduce and prevent the harms of those needs. The author makes a compelling case for this approach in contrast with a purely clinical/medicalized approach to public health. Each chapter then applies the articulated approach to many different social and health problems in the United States and globally (hence the title, “The Cure for Everything”).

There are two shortcomings in the book that hold back its effectiveness and they deserve to be highlighted. The first is that the book includes throwaway political jabs that will diminish its broader appeal. Perhaps the author perceives her audience as likeminded individuals, and I would argue that for the goals of her book to succeed she needs these perspectives to be heard by people who may not be on the same political “side.” That does not mean that this book should temper its content or dilute its ideals, but side comments taking aim at different perspectives are unhelpful.

For the most part this book handles difficult, contentious issues with nuance, provoking anecdotes, and objective data. However, the second shortcoming is that there are specific instances where the text departs from this effective approach to reading more like an ideological rant. As a reader, it was jarring when Williams abruptly switched tone from a rational application of public health methodology, sound data/evidence, and collaborative problem solving to, at times, pontification completely devoid of any data, evidence, or room for differing perspective. I found it unfortunate that a book with an incredibly critical core message would then devolve into a self-assured soapbox.

On the whole, the book inspired me as a public health professional. It refreshed and rejuvenated important concepts that I hope to apply to my work. For this, I am thankful to Dr. Williams for her efforts in publishing this book. Yet, if I wanted to explain public health to a colleague or friend, I would hesitate to recommend the book lest it create a false impression that the political and ideological contents are inherent to public health as a field of study and work.

[David D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Important reading, timely. A reframing of medical history and how some of those things changed history in general. We have arrived in a new world of understanding. Honestly - I wish I could say it better - read this book. I especially appreciated the author's inclusion of her own personal story, her own path through medical and academic systems that always resist change, even while sometimes providing the only opportunities for change.

Culturally there's a need to assess what we've just been through in the past 3 decades, especially as regards public health. Think of it - AIDS, SARS, bird flu, swine flu, Ebola, Covid-19... What we knew in the beginning phases; what we learned. There's a steep learning curve, and there's no "one size fits all" explanation of what to do. The important thing is to respond: go in, learn and compare notes, and then come to a consensus of approach in dealing with it. Perhaps we can't aim for perfection as a goal, but we can demand all humans be given equitable care.

And some things about our behaviors (culturally, individually, globally) that, before, seemed a matter of individual choice rapidly have become incumbent societal choices. Things that, before, seemed consequential in clinic or hospital settings suddenly grew into a visible spreading mass of data points. Largely due to more sophisticated data gathering.

Many things have become apparent over the past 3 decades that could have been ignored before. Some of the things we are learning make it impossible to ever go back.

The author makes the point that not only is the newish relevance of "public health" an immediate concern, it's a revolution - within a solution - that marks what will either make us or break us. It is the way forward. Highly recommended.

[Nina Christie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The opening few chapters of this book each go into a biographical account of public health innovators throughout history, which I found to be both interesting and informative. I had heard of figures like W.E.B Du Bois and Alice Hamilton, but I had not understood their personal lives and how they ended up becoming so significant to public health in the United States.

This book includes analyses of how public health has developed over time to eradicate diseases, improve longevity, and how it has yet to be successfully applied in some more complex cases of interpersonal behavioral health problems or the link between place and health because of racism and a lack of political will.

Some moments in the book felt like a lecture or a “soap box” as other reviewers noted, but I think the criticism that those moments are not well-researched is unfair. The statements Dr. Williams makes are well-researched and the sections where she is sharing her beliefs on how to move forward read as a critical call to action to me more-so than a “diatribe”.

I think anyone interested in how we can make our communities healthy before we even step food inside a medical facility should read this book. This includes public health practitioners, medical care providers, people who make our laws and policies, and all of us who elect them.

[Katarina · Rating 5 out of 5]

*Audiobook via Libby*

Brilliant work highlighting what public health is, its history and how detrimental public health is to our society. The author highlights important studies and talks about the U.S. in comparison to similar countries and ways we have failed in public health, ways other countries have succeeded in models we could implement and how funding public health and focusing on the biggest risks to health immediately would get us on the right track. There’s so much to say. She brought up COVID, HCW and PHP burnout, how the U.S. healthcare system and its health focused bodies are not bound to communicate and there isn’t ONE eminent health authority in the U.S., workforce issues, lost trust, the past and heroes in our field. I have so much underlining to do. lol

This should be a required read for current public health leaders and professionals, as well as required reading for Public Health students.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Cure for Everything by Michelle A. Williams.

This topic is so important to me, understanding how much death and disease affects the public currently and the future of society as a whole. While the book itself is chock full of information, it reads much more like a textbook than a nonfiction, informative book for me. It was quite long and while starting each chapter with a small story, antidote of personal connection I felt that the chapters then went off in too many directions. I got bored with this one half way through.
I would recommend if this is an area that you are interested in becoming more informed in as a whole.

Thank you to the publishers for the advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

[Karen Cohn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating and well-researched - if often depressing - text about the history of the successes and failures of the American public health system, including the failures that occurred due to various prejudices that impacted understanding needs, providing treatment, and avoiding the appearance of liability. It also has recommendations for improvement woven through the historical information. This volume should be required reading for anyone entering any health profession, and especially public health, and is recommended for anyone who is interested in the history of medical care in this country.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book provided by Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this more than I did. I work in healthcare and I enjoy reading about the history of public health. Each chapter covers a specific topic related to public health in the United States. Some of the topics explored are the history of the CDC, occupational safety, the gun violence epidemic, and neighborhoods polluted by environmental toxins. The chapters featured interesting stories, but I also thought Williams would go on tangents in each chapter that were only loosely connected to the original topic. The chapters also got a little repetitive after a while. Williams' passion for public health shines through, but the prose left something to be desired.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. In another writer’s hands, this book may have turned out to be a giant soapbox or a hellfire-and-brimstone diatribe. But in Dr. William’s hands, it was a well-written, well-paced, thoughtful story of public health. All her arguments are supported by data, but the book doesn’t get bogged down in minutiae. I loved the conversational tone of the writing and found the book near-impossible to put down. I think that this would be a great book for anyone interested in public health. Thank you to Netgalley and One World for the advance reader copy.

[R.Z. · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book's title, "The Cure for Everything," sounds like a pie-in-the-sky idea, but it's actually grounded in science, data, and some visionary people who showed it was possible. Author Michelle Williams tells the story of Public Health, its astounding success when applied appropriately, and its dismal failure when politicians and others failed to support it. Williams offers many historical anecdotes, making this an intriguing read. I highly recommend it and hope you will tell your friends and colleagues to read it too.

[Camille · Rating 5 out of 5]

Michelle A. Williams provides a masterclass in the history and care of public health in America. From the inception of public health to modern day health care woes (and its horrific roots in racism) Michelle shares her knowledge from not only first hand experience, but also a rich history of public health as a whole. I have a background in healthcare so I was generally aware of some of the issues she spoke about, however her in depth knowledge and explanation was outstanding. I would highly recommend this nonfiction work to anyone and everyone--healthcare is a universal right.

[Levi Renninger · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good insight into the American healthcare system, its struggles, and long history. Brings up interesting aspects of healthcare that are truly healthcare related but have roots in violence, guns, racism, politics, and disinformation. An interesting read for me, since I am in healthcare at some capacity, but would be pretty boring for those not involved and would benefit from being more concise. Makes me want to move to Costa Rica.

[Donna Farrug · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book, loved learning about our medical history in this country, as well as what has transpired up to the printing of this book in 2023. Highly recommend, it was nice to depart from typical fiction into a factual book.

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5 stars

Always interesting to read about public health

[Barbara Greene · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is a liberal vision of Socialism. And, that vision is far from reality. Ms. Williams should go back to writing cookbooks! -

[Elizabeth Peebles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing

[Richard Gresham · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the book

[Gabrielle Draper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super informative, timely and well-written.