A Deeper Sickness
Journal of America in the Pandemic Year
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
A harrowing chronicle by two leading historians, capturing in real time the events of a year marked by multiple devastations.
When we look back at the year 2020, how can we describe what really happened? In A Deeper Sickness, award-winning historians Margaret Peacock and Erik Peterson set out to preserve what they call the “focused confusion,” and to probe deeper into what they consider the Four Pandemics that converged around the 12 astonishing months of 2020:
• Disease
• Disinformation
• Poverty
• Violence
Drs. Peacock and Peterson use their interdisciplinary expertise to extend their analysis beyond the viral science, and instead into the social, political, and historical dimensions of this crisis. They consulted with dozens of experts and witnesses from a wide range of fields—from leading epidemiologists and health care workers to leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement, district attorneys, political scientists, philosophers, and more. Their journey revealed a sick country that believed it was well, a violent nation that believed it was peaceful; one that mistook poverty for prosperity and accountability for rebellion.
Organized into the journal-entries along with dozens of archival images, A Deeper Sickness will help readers sift through the chaos and misinformation that characterized those frantic days. It is both an unflinching indictment of a nation that is still reeling and a testament to the power of human resilience and collective memory.
Readers can share their story and become a contributing author by visiting an interactive digital museum, where the authors have preserved dozens of more stories and interviews.
Visit Margaret Peacock and Erik L. Peterson’s digital museum at adhc.lib.ua.edu/pandemicbook/.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
University of Alabama historians Peacock, who specializes in media and propaganda, and Peterson, who studies science and medicine, record the tumultuous events of 2020 in this immersive—and frequently blood-boiling—account. In dated entries starting on Jan. 1, 2020, and ending on Jan. 7, 2021, the authors record the first mentions on U.S. disease-tracking websites of an unknown respiratory infection in China, early reassurances from the CDC and media outlets including the New York Times that the flu was a greater danger than Covid-19, the unprecedented spike in unemployment claims after shutdown orders went into effect, the eruption of Black Lives Matter protests following the police killing of George Floyd, and the invasion of the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters. The authors' personal reflections are enriched by interviews with public health experts, historians, frontline workers, and even a pair of meth users who shed light on how shutdowns affected the drug market. Though the journal format leaves little room for contextualizing these events, the authors' diligence and sharp instincts turn up many telling moments, including commerce secretary Wilbur Ross suggesting in January 2020 that "death and disruption in China" would be good for U.S. businesses. The result is a vigorous and clear-eyed first draft of recent history.
