White Plague, Black Labor: Tuberculosis and the Political Economy of Health and Disease in South Africa

Comparative Studies of Health Systems and Medical Care

by Randall M. Packard

Why does tuberculosis, a disease which is both curable and preventable, continue to produce over 50,000 new cases a year in South Africa, primarily among blacks? In answering this question Randall Packard traces the history of one of the most devastating diseases in twentieth-century Africa, against the background of the changing political and economic forces that have shaped South African society from the end of the nineteenth century to the present. These forces have generated a growing backlog of disease among black workers and their families and at the same time have prevented the development of effective public health measures for controlling it. Packard's rich and nuanced analysis is a significant contribution to the growing body of literature on South Africa's social history as well as to the history of medicine and the political economy of health.

Genres: History, Africa, South Africa, Nonfiction

416 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

Reviews

[Gwenyth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoy Dr. Packard's work. This is a fascinating exploration of the spread of TB in South Africa, the ways in which the medical discourse and reaction to the disease were every point were mediated by the political economic interests of the country, and the way in which medical arguments were used to justify the move towards apartheid.
That said, this seemed to me more "academic" in tone than his later one on malaria. It's dense, and he doesn't really hold the reader's hand. Not exactly the category as pop public health books such as The Ghost Map or the recent Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, so I wouldn't recommend it to people who are looking for a lighter read.