No open-access location is known for this record yet.
No open-access location is known for this record yet.
Few public-health paradigms are as important or enduring as the Maoist primary-health-care medical model. It not only inspired the World Health Organization’s policies toward primary health care but also is being revitalized to address current Chinese health crises, such as SARS. The book reassesses this celebrated model through the lens of one of Mao’s most famous health campaigns, the fight against snail fever, a parasitic disease. Using newly available archives, the book documents how economic, political, and cultural realities led to grassroots resistance, overturning the prior campaign narrative of popular patriotic support. The campaign nonetheless triumphed, but not because of its touted mass prevention campaign. Instead, success came from its unacknowledged treatment arm, carried out by rural educated youth with the help of well-trained urban physicians banished to the countryside. The book suggests that the whole relationship between science and political control during the ostensibly antiscientific Maoist era needs reconsideration. It discovers that “grassroots science” not only trained “red and expert” youth to carry out medical and organizational roles in mass campaigns but also aided regime legitimation and facilitated party control in rural areas. This scientifically based method of political consolidation was amazingly effective, helping public-health campaigns achieve some of their most hated mandates, such as forcing people to chase after miniscule snails.
Loading…
Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.