Farewell to the God of Plague: Chairman Mao’s Campaign to Deworm China

by Miriam Gross

Farewell to the God of Plague reassesses the celebrated Maoist health care model through the lens of Mao’s famous campaign against snail fever. Using newly available archives, Miriam Gross documents how economic, political, and cultural realities led to grassroots resistance. Nonetheless, the campaign triumphed, but not because of its touted mass-prevention campaign. Instead, success came from its unacknowledged treatment arm, carried out jointly by banished urban doctors and rural educated youth. More broadly, the author reconsiders the relationship between science and political control during the ostensibly antiscientific Maoist era, discovering the important role of “grassroots science” in regime legitimation and Party control in rural areas.

374 pages, Hardcover

First published January 5, 2016

Reviews

[Naked Fish · Rating 4 out of 5]

从血吸虫病防治运动入手探讨共和国时期国家对地方农村对渗透和干预。防治运动的成功与否取决于多方面因素，过程往往是极为困难和偶然性十足的。国家不仅需要解决经费和组织上的问题，还需要改变民众对自然、疾病和自己身体的认知。最终的理想结果是治疗起到了比防疫更大的作用。从第四章开始讨论科学知识和工具的构建、传播和在治理中的应用，最后两章尤为精彩。整体上材料扎实论证清晰但是牵扯到太多的问题，导致个别点上不够深入。理应得到更多关注的一本书。

[Catherine Wan · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is still unclear to me how they got rid of the snails.