“With equal dose of empathy and examination, Sandro Galea challenges us to undertake a deep exercise of self-reflection: how our hard-won political beliefs may betray us in the hope for a greater good. Within Reason is critically relevant for each of us—and all of us.”
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Readings from Within Reason.
A provocative chronicle of how US public health has strayed from its liberal roots.
The Covid-19 response was a crucible of politics and public health—a volatile combination that produced predictably bad results. As scientific expertise became entangled with political motivations, the public-health establishment found itself mired in political encampment.
It was, as Sandro Galea argues, a crisis of liberalism: a retreat from the principles of free speech, open debate, and the pursuit of knowledge through reasoned inquiry that should inform the work of public health.
Across fifty essays, Within Reason chronicles how public health became enmeshed in the insidious social trends that accelerated under Covid-19. Galea challenges this intellectual drift towards intolerance and absolutism while showing how similar regressions from reason undermined social progress during earlier eras. Within Reason builds an incisive case for a return to critical, open inquiry as a guiding principle for the future public health we want—and a future we must work to protect.
“A brave communicator, Galea has the style of a tutor who doesn’t heap his readers with unwarranted show-and-tell sympathy. When it comes to complex issues such as the economy, ideas, inequality, health, technology, policy, and politics, he is there, engaging the audience with parables. It is not difficult to be on board with him.”
“... Within Reason provides a lucid examination of how the pandemic set in motion a gradual disenchantment with many of the liberal values that underlie the work of public health. For readers who are receptive, the book delivers a thoughtful set of ideas for moving forward while, at the same time, reclaiming a liberal approach to public health policy.”
“... I thoroughly enjoyed this book; it is erudite, well written and thought provoking. I agree with much of what the author argues. I will be coming back to large sections of it to inform my own practice and teaching in public health. I would also love to have a discussion with the author to debate the ideas in his book, comparing and contrasting the experience of the pandemic in the US and New Zealand to see whether his arguments would hold or whether they could be strengthened. His ideas may make a great deal of sense in a society that values liberty über alles, but do they hold where equity is the main organising principle? Such a discussion would, I am sure, assist public health practitioners in their ‘pursuit of truth, and the preservation of liberty’.”
“The COVID-19 pandemic created a ripple effect across many facets of society. The field of public health was not immune to the effects of this transformative event. In Within Reason, Galea (dean, Boston Univ. School of Public Health) provides a collection of his own essays to explore how the pandemic impacted public health in the US, alongside other general issues the pandemic exposed. In addition to providing incisive analysis on this topic, Galea’s essays provide a powerful and thought-provoking look at the trends in public health that were accelerated due to the pandemic. Of importance is the trend away from a science-based approach to addressing public health issues and toward greater reliance on subjectivity. As a STEM-based field, public health is grounded in science and scientific methodology to inform researchers and policymakers in their decision-making processes. Galea argues for a return to critical thinking and inquiry as the backbone of public health and warns of a loss of trust in the future if researchers and policymakers fail to do so.”
“Galea is a good companion in navigating readers through the political thickets in which public health now operates. ”
“Galea makes a powerful case that to carry the worst illiberal outcomes from the pandemic into the next crisis would be a devastating mistake.”
“Powerful, erudite, and immersive—an essential treatise on our needed reformation in public health.”