ABOUT THIS BOOK

An analysis of the lessons learned from tuberculosis control in Shanghai.

Tuberculosis Control and Institutional Change in Shanghai, 1911–2011 is the first book on the most widespread and deadly infectious disease in China, both historically and today. Weaving together interviews with data from periodicals and local archives in Shanghai, Rachel Core examines the rise and fall of tuberculosis control in China from the 1950s to the 1990s. Under the socialist work unit system, the vast majority of people had guaranteed employment, a host of benefits tied to their workplace, and there was little mobility—factors that made the delivery of medical and public health services possible in both urban and rural areas. The dismantling of work units amid wider market reforms in the 1980s and 1990s led to the rise of temporary and casual employment and a huge migrant worker population, with little access to health care, creating new challenges in TB control. This study of Shanghai will provide valuable lessons for historians, social scientists, public health specialists, and many others working on public health infrastructure on both the national and global levels.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Rachel S. Core is associate professor and chair of the Sociology and Anthropology Department at Stetson University.

REVIEWS

“Based on careful empirical research and interviews with dozens of patients, Core’s study demonstrates that tuberculosis control was one of the success stories of Mao’s socialist regime. In our current era—with its proliferation of respiratory illnesses driven by global capitalism—this public health history deserves to be widely known.”

— Ruth Rogaski, Vanderbilt University

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Illustrations
List of Tables
Acknowledgments
List of Acronyms
Note on Romanization
Introduction
Part I: Republican Era, 1911–1949
1. Tuberculosis and the Quest for Modernity in Shanghai, 1911–1927
2. An Unrealized Vision of Health and Tuberculosis Control, 1928–1949
Part II: Work-Unit Era, 1950–1992
3. Embracing a New Scientific Health Image in the Work Unit, 1950–1957
4. Shanghai’s Great Leap Forward in Tuberculosis Control, 1958–1992
5. Building and Maintaining the Tuberculosis Control Network in Shanghai’s Rural Counties, 1950s–1990s
Part III: Post-Work-Unit Era, 1992–2011
6. Dismantling of the Work-Unit System and Challenges to Tuberculosis Control in Shanghai, 1992–2011
Conclusion
Appendix: Tuberculosis Patient Interviewees
References
Index