Synopses & Reviews
In 1941, after decades of struggling to hold on to the remainder of their aboriginal home, the Hualapai Indians finally took their case to the Supreme Courtand#151;and won. The Hualapai case was the culminating event in a legal and intellectual revolution that transformed Indian law and ushered in a new way of writing Indian history that provided legal grounds for native land claims. But Making Indian Law is about more than a legal decision.and#160; Itand#8217;s the story of Hualapai activists, and eventually sympathetic lawyers, who challenged both the Santa Fe Railroad and the U.S. government to a courtroom showdown over the meaning of Indian property rightsand#151;and the Indian past.
At the heart of the Hualapai campaign to save the reservation was documenting the history of Hualapai land use. Making Indian Law showcases the central role that the Hualapai and their lawyers played in formulating new understandings of native people, their property, and their past. To this day, the impact of the Hualapai decision is felt wherever and whenever indigenous land claims are litigated throughout the world.
Review
and#8220;Highly original, this book offers unique analyses of ethnohistory, the place of Indians in Indian law, and the connections of Indian land rights litigation to the international world.and#8221;and#8212;Sydney Harring, author of
Crow Dogand#8217;s Case: American Indian Sovereignty, Tribal Law, and United States Law in the Nineteenth Centuryandnbsp;
Review
"This outstanding book teaches us that and#8216;Indian lawand#8217; is not something dreamed up in Washington, D.C., but something created by Indian people through struggle, imagination and persistence. Every community deserves to be treated with the intelligence and respect that McMillen exhibits in these pages and every American should feel both shame and pride at the story he tells."and#8212;Frederick E. Hoxie, Swanlund Professor of History, University of Illinois
Review
and#8220;This captivating account of the epic struggle over Hualapai land occupation offers rich insights into American Indian law and also reminds us of how the American legal system, with all its flaws, sometimes stands tall as the ultimate protector of dispossessed peoples.and#8221;and#8212;Charles Wilkinson, author of
Blood Struggle: The Rise of Modern Indian NationsReview
andldquo;McMillenandrsquo;s impressive global history of TB shows why it is essential that TB workers and policymakers understand the histories of past control efforts and the local settings and political contingencies that shaped them.andrdquo;andmdash;Randall Packard, author of White Plague, Black Labor: Tuberculosis and the Political Economy of Health and Disease in South Africa
Review
andldquo;Based on an impressive reading of the medical literature and some rich archival collections, this book does much with the history of tuberculosis into the early 2000s, with a focus on global TB policy that will be quite useful for the many people interested and involved today in TB control.andrdquo;andmdash;David S. Jones, author of Rationalizing Epidemics: Meanings and Uses of American Indian Mortality since 1600
Review
andldquo;Once seen as a disease of the past, tuberculosis is making a frightening revival. McMillen crosses geographical, temporal, and disciplinary boundaries in this transnational history of global eradication efforts. Discovering Tuberculosis eloquently and disturbingly explains how and why TB remains such a durable scourge today.andrdquo; andmdash;Matthew Klingle, Bowdoin College
Review
andldquo;Discovering Tuberculosis provides a deep historical account of why tuberculosis remains a major threat to global health, despite more than seventy years of efforts. Taking readers from Kenya to the andlsquo;expert committeesandrsquo; in Geneva, this book shows how economic dogma trumped science in shaping global health policy in the twentieth century.andrdquo;andmdash;Salmaan Keshavjee, author of Blind Spot: How Neoliberalism Infiltrated Global Health
Review
andldquo;Despite breakthroughs, our attempt to rein in tuberculosis continues to include setbacks, frustration, and failure. McMillenandrsquo;s important study shows why.andrdquo;andmdash;Booklist
Review
andldquo;Readers . . . will learn a great deal from this fascinating look at an old disease that is still very much with us.andrdquo;andmdash;Library Journal
Synopsis
Tuberculosis is one of the worldandrsquo;s deadliest infectious diseases, killing nearly two million people every yearandmdash;more now than at any other time in history. While the developed world has nearly forgotten about TB, it continues to wreak havoc across much of the globe. In this interdisciplinary study of global efforts to control TB, Christian McMillen examines the diseaseandrsquo;s remarkable staying power by offering a probing look at key locations, developments, ideas, and medical successes and failures since 1900. He explores TB and race in east Africa, in South Africa, and on Native American reservations in the first half of the twentieth century, investigates the unsuccessful search for a vaccine, uncovers the origins of drug-resistant tuberculosis in Kenya and elsewhere in the decades following World War II, and details the tragic story of the resurgence of TB in the era of HIV/AIDS. Discovering Tuberculosis explains why controlling TB has been, and continues to be, so difficult.
About the Author
Christian W. McMillen is an associate professor of history at the University of Virginia. He is the author of Making Indian Law: The Hualapai Land Case and the Birth of Ethnohistory. He lives in Charlottesville, VA.