On Immunity: An Inoculation

In this bold, fascinating book, Eula Biss explores our fear of vaccines and the risk of disease. She addresses the modern anxiety about vaccination — from the MMR vaccine and autism to the role of Big Pharma — and situates it within a broader story about parenthood, the body, and the body politic. Drawing on sources from the eighteenth century to the present, Biss reveals the surprising history of inoculation and the heated debates that have always surrounded it. Elegant and impassioned, On Immunity is a moving meditation on what it means to be a parent, a citizen, and a human in a world full of risk.