OLLI0182 - History of Public Health

Course Description

This course will cover the unique history of public health and sanitation in the United States, from the earliest days of the fledgling United States to our modern era. Sanitation and hygiene issues have been a central aspect of much of American life from America’s founding fathers' exceptional attention to matters of health, to the recent pandemic response. However, this prioritization of sanitary measures and even their connection to health was, and is, not uniformly accepted, and then as now, much of society actively resisted their implementation. This course will explore the role of sanitation and public health in American society including its history, the science of sanitation, and the ongoing debate about the role of American institutions in the promotion of health with special emphasis on Nashville. This course will be recorded.