Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents vii
3. Preface and Acknowledgments ix
4. INTRODUCTION “Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired” 1
5. CHAPTER ONE Disease and Exploitation During the Colonial and Revolutionary Eras 19
6. CHAPTER TWO Life and Death in Antebellum America 57
7. CHAPTER THREE “The Surging Tide of Business . . . Yielding Up the Bones of the Dead”: Overwork, Poor Nutrition, Unhygienic Homes, and a Hazardous Workplace 95
8. CHAPTER FOUR Resetting the Ground Rules for Inequality: Labor, Law, and Health After the Civil War 150
9. CHAPTER FIVE Gasping for Breath: Creating New Diseases and Inequalities 177
10. CHAPTER SIX Better Living Through Chemistry? 224
11. CHAPTER SEVEN Darkest Before the Dawn? 280
12. Notes 303
13. Index 373