Chicago's war on syphilis, 1937–40: the times, the Trib, and the clap doctor

parallel non-Task Force initiatives such as The Gambia Hepatitis Group are neglected). Only at ground level do the files fail. The women's movement in Indonesia or village health workers in Thailand are seen from above, from memos and reports by outsiders. Thus a reference to an Indonesian village split by unbridged ravines, creating difficulties for vaccinators (p. 104) appears as a rare, refreshing, insight bringing the local picture to life. Because of the author's closeness to his sources, at times there is a feel of reportage rather than reflection. Muraskin may be conscious of this tendency as he refers-albeit fleetingly-to debates against which this history should be situated. Thomas McKeown's critics are mainly dealt with in a footnote, where unfortunately Simon Szreter's article is mis-cited as appearing in Social History without the Medicine (n. 37, p. 75). McKeown's contribution is presented in relation to a burning issue in current health politics-vertical versus horizontal interventions-with extreme critics portraying vertical programmes as new imperialism. Muraskin argues that the Task Force saw hepatitis B vaccination (an archetypically vertical policy) as the means of saving many lives: empowerment of the poor, though a laudable goal, would not rapidly deliver the vaccine (pp. 64-5). June Goodfield's history of global vaccination programmes (cited here), and Muraskin's own contribution, open up a wider territory for familiar historiographical debates. Flawed by its immediacy and partisanship, this book is also inspired by these same qualities. It is a unique contribution in an area of recent history of importance in its own right, but also as an instance of more general policy history. The book will be of use to health policy and health promotion scholars as well as medical historians interested in third world issues.