H-PAD Notes 5/15/20: Links to recent articles of interest

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Links to Recent Articles of Interest
“From Black Death to Fatal Flu, Past Pandemics Show Why People on the Margins Suffer Most”
By Lizzie May, Science, posted May 14
This article, in a prestigious science journal, summarizes a great amount of historical data on the differential impact of infectious diseases.
“Nurses on the Front Lines: A History of Heroism from Florence Nightingale to Coronavirus”

By Leslie Neal-Boylan, The Conversation, posted May 11
The author has been a nurse for 40 years and is dean of the school of nursing at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.
“If Only We Had that $6.4 Trillion We Wasted on Iraq and Afghanistan to Lift the Economy and Fight Coronavirus”
By Juan Cole, Informed Comment blog, posted May 11
A fact-based polemic, primarily on the George W. Bush administration's post-9/11 decision making. The author teaches Middle East history at the University of Michigan.
“Amid the Coronavirus Pandemic, America's Billionaires Thrive and Prosper”
By Lawrence Wittner, CounterPunch.org, posted May 11
The author is a professor emeritus of history at SUNY Albany.
“How Racism Is Shaping the Coronavirus Pandemic”
Interview of Evelyn Hammonds by Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, posted May 7
A historical discussion going back to the early American Republic. Evelyn Hammonds is a historian of race and disease and chair of the History of Science department at Harvard University.

“Virus-Afflicted 2020 Looks Like 1918 Despite Science's March”
By Calvin Woodward, AP News, posted May 5
Extensive comparisons between the two pandemics, pulled together by a team of Associated Press reporters.
“The Policy Mistakes from the 1990s That Have Made Covid-19 Worse”
By Heather Ann Thompson, Washington Post, posted May 4
Lessons that could have been learned from a tuberculosis epidemic in the early '90s were ignored as Congress plowed ahead with new laws for mass incarceration and welfare cuts  that made the nation more vulnerable to infectious diseases. The author teaches history at the University of Michigan.
Three related articles in The Nation, posted May 4:
“'Tin Soldiers and Nixon's Coming': The Shootings at Kent State and Jackson State at 50” by Robert Cohen and Michael Koncewicz, “Kent State: 50 Years After the Shootings” by Thomas M. Grace, and “Remembering the Jackson State Tragedy” by Nancy K. Bristow

“Meatpacking Work Has Become Less Safe. Now It Threatens Our Meat Supply”
By Chris Deutsch, Washington Post, posted May 1
On the rise and fall of union power and government regulation in the meatpacking industry. The author teaches history at the University of Missouri.

Thanks to Rusti Eisenberg, Tom Grace, and an anonymous reader for suggesting some of the articles in the above list. Suggestions can be sent to jimobrien48@gmail.com.