Andrew Wehrman
@profwehrman.bsky.social
History professor at CMU and author of "The Contagion of Liberty: The Politics of Smallpox in the American Revolution" Vaccination is patriotic.
New book project(!) tentatively titled: Afterlife and Liberty: New York City’s Doctors’ Riot of 1788
New book project(!) tentatively titled: Afterlife and Liberty: New York City’s Doctors’ Riot of 1788
I loved this whole thread summary of my book, but she really got to the heart of the conclusion here (no small feat, it's a long and at times dense book!).
Smallpox continued to be a threat for another hundred years - because of public health vs private income. There was a lot of victim-blaming rather than concerted efforts at making vaccines affordable.
So while the US was a leader in inoculation, we fumbled vaccination.
So while the US was a leader in inoculation, we fumbled vaccination.
February 16, 2026 at 7:49 PM
I loved this whole thread summary of my book, but she really got to the heart of the conclusion here (no small feat, it's a long and at times dense book!).
I loved reading this *excellent* summary thread of my book! Thanks for reading, Torrey!
Finished the audiobook of Contagion of Liberty: The Politics of Smallpox in the American Revolution, written by Andrew M Wehrman & read by Timothy Andrés Pabon.
Washington inoculating the army was of course more complicated of a decision than modern retellings indicate.
💙📚
Washington inoculating the army was of course more complicated of a decision than modern retellings indicate.
💙📚
February 16, 2026 at 1:29 PM
I loved reading this *excellent* summary thread of my book! Thanks for reading, Torrey!
You should go ahead and subscribe to The Reckoning podcast now and let my episode (#182) be the appetizer to your main course (episode #183) of Lincoln, vampires, and HCR!
Alright, let’s make it official. This Thursday @hcrichardson.bsky.social makes her first appearance on Reckoning with Jason Herbert.
We’re talking Lincoln.
We’re talking mythology.
We’re talking power.
We’re talking…vampires.
Subscribe below not to miss a thing.
We’re talking Lincoln.
We’re talking mythology.
We’re talking power.
We’re talking…vampires.
Subscribe below not to miss a thing.
February 10, 2026 at 9:59 PM
You should go ahead and subscribe to The Reckoning podcast now and let my episode (#182) be the appetizer to your main course (episode #183) of Lincoln, vampires, and HCR!
Reposted by Andrew Wehrman
Find it on Apple Podcasts:
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...
Episode 182: Contagion of Liberty: Smallpox, Freedom, and America's First Culture War with Andrew Wehrman
Podcast Episode · Reckoning with Jason Herbert · 02/09/2026 · 1h 11m
podcasts.apple.com
February 9, 2026 at 2:23 PM
Find it on Apple Podcasts:
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...
My 12 year old “So first they have Green Day playing songs from the 90s and 2000s and now the anthem from the War of 1812. Old guys like you must be happy, right dad?”
February 8, 2026 at 11:34 PM
My 12 year old “So first they have Green Day playing songs from the 90s and 2000s and now the anthem from the War of 1812. Old guys like you must be happy, right dad?”
Reposted by Andrew Wehrman
Coming to Reckoning with Jason Herbert tomorrow- @profwehrman.bsky.social drops in to talk about how debates over smallpox and public health worked to forge a national identity in the early Republic
February 8, 2026 at 4:54 PM
Coming to Reckoning with Jason Herbert tomorrow- @profwehrman.bsky.social drops in to talk about how debates over smallpox and public health worked to forge a national identity in the early Republic
Thanks, Jason! It was fun!
This is the story the viruses don’t want you to hear. You can tell by the lingering effects of Ramsay Hunt Syndrome (varicella zoster) paralyzing the side of my face, but the viruses couldn’t keep me from sharing this history. Get vaccinated and have a listen.
This is the story the viruses don’t want you to hear. You can tell by the lingering effects of Ramsay Hunt Syndrome (varicella zoster) paralyzing the side of my face, but the viruses couldn’t keep me from sharing this history. Get vaccinated and have a listen.
Coming to Reckoning with Jason Herbert tomorrow- @profwehrman.bsky.social drops in to talk about how debates over smallpox and public health worked to forge a national identity in the early Republic
February 8, 2026 at 8:05 PM
Thanks, Jason! It was fun!
This is the story the viruses don’t want you to hear. You can tell by the lingering effects of Ramsay Hunt Syndrome (varicella zoster) paralyzing the side of my face, but the viruses couldn’t keep me from sharing this history. Get vaccinated and have a listen.
This is the story the viruses don’t want you to hear. You can tell by the lingering effects of Ramsay Hunt Syndrome (varicella zoster) paralyzing the side of my face, but the viruses couldn’t keep me from sharing this history. Get vaccinated and have a listen.
I keep coming back to Charles Blow’s “The Lowest White Man,” From 2018, because Trump proves Blow was right on a near daily basis. www.nytimes.com/2018/01/11/o...
Opinion | ‘The Lowest White Man’ (Published 2018)
www.nytimes.com
February 7, 2026 at 12:55 AM
I keep coming back to Charles Blow’s “The Lowest White Man,” From 2018, because Trump proves Blow was right on a near daily basis. www.nytimes.com/2018/01/11/o...
Reposted by Andrew Wehrman
I am speechless.
"The National Park Service has removed visitor brochures from the Medgar & Myrlie Evers Home National Monument. Among the anticipated changes? No longer calling his murderer a 'racist.'" 🗃️ mississippitoday.org/2026/02/05/m...
"The National Park Service has removed visitor brochures from the Medgar & Myrlie Evers Home National Monument. Among the anticipated changes? No longer calling his murderer a 'racist.'" 🗃️ mississippitoday.org/2026/02/05/m...
Medgar Evers’ killer was a Klansman, but Trump administration says stop calling him a racist - Mississippi Today
Among anticipated changes to a new visitor brochure for the Medgar & Myrlie Evers Home National Monument is no longer using "racist" to describe the killer of the civil rights leader.
mississippitoday.org
February 5, 2026 at 3:59 PM
I am speechless.
"The National Park Service has removed visitor brochures from the Medgar & Myrlie Evers Home National Monument. Among the anticipated changes? No longer calling his murderer a 'racist.'" 🗃️ mississippitoday.org/2026/02/05/m...
"The National Park Service has removed visitor brochures from the Medgar & Myrlie Evers Home National Monument. Among the anticipated changes? No longer calling his murderer a 'racist.'" 🗃️ mississippitoday.org/2026/02/05/m...
I met Josh way back in 2002 when we were in honors geology together at the University of Arkansas. I invited him to join the UofA's quizbowl team, and now he's a 7-time Jeopardy champ (ok, maybe I can't take all the credit), and he will be back on the show next week for the Invitational Tournament!
The @jeopardyofficial.bsky.social Invitational Tournament starts TODAY, and I will take the Alex Trebek Stage on Wednesday, February 11th - but you definitely want to watch ALL the matches in this tournament - they're gonna be AWESOME!!! How awesome? I can't say... you have to tune in and find out!
February 5, 2026 at 3:28 PM
I met Josh way back in 2002 when we were in honors geology together at the University of Arkansas. I invited him to join the UofA's quizbowl team, and now he's a 7-time Jeopardy champ (ok, maybe I can't take all the credit), and he will be back on the show next week for the Invitational Tournament!
Reminder that no one knows what Christopher Columbus even looked like (all portraits are guesses by the artists long after he died), so besides being awful statues of Columbus are also extra dumb.
New @washingtonpost.com:
Trump is planning to install a statue of Christopher Columbus outside the White House
Officials are eying a spot by E St, north of the Ellipse
with the terrific @oliviacgeorge.bsky.social
Trump is planning to install a statue of Christopher Columbus outside the White House
Officials are eying a spot by E St, north of the Ellipse
with the terrific @oliviacgeorge.bsky.social
Trump plans to install Christopher Columbus statue outside White House
The president has worked to recognize the explorer, saying Italian-Americans should “remember” Trump’s efforts when they go vote.
www.washingtonpost.com
February 4, 2026 at 12:19 PM
Reminder that no one knows what Christopher Columbus even looked like (all portraits are guesses by the artists long after he died), so besides being awful statues of Columbus are also extra dumb.
Reposted by Andrew Wehrman
Andrew's book is amazing, btw. Smallpox and efforts to curb smallpox are woven into the very fabric of our country and the very concept of "liberty."
Today is the paperback release day for my book The Contagion of Liberty! It’s about how Americans demanded that their governments provide inoculations for smallpox to the public as their right and also to affirm that public health is a foremost duty of government. www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/...
The Contagion of Liberty
The Politics of Smallpox in the American Revolution
www.press.jhu.edu
February 3, 2026 at 11:50 AM
Andrew's book is amazing, btw. Smallpox and efforts to curb smallpox are woven into the very fabric of our country and the very concept of "liberty."
Today is the paperback release day for my book The Contagion of Liberty! It’s about how Americans demanded that their governments provide inoculations for smallpox to the public as their right and also to affirm that public health is a foremost duty of government. www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/...
The Contagion of Liberty
The Politics of Smallpox in the American Revolution
www.press.jhu.edu
February 3, 2026 at 11:45 AM
Today is the paperback release day for my book The Contagion of Liberty! It’s about how Americans demanded that their governments provide inoculations for smallpox to the public as their right and also to affirm that public health is a foremost duty of government. www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/...
Reposted by Andrew Wehrman
the literal easiest way to have rural healthcare and get more doctors is to create a federal program where people get their med school paid for and then have to “serve” in rural or urban hospitals for 4-6 years for a reasonable wage. i’ve been wondering why this doesn’t seem to exist since 2008.
Dr Oz on rural healthcare: "There's no question about it, whether you want it or not -- the best way to help some of these communities is gonna be AI-based avatars"
February 3, 2026 at 12:50 AM
the literal easiest way to have rural healthcare and get more doctors is to create a federal program where people get their med school paid for and then have to “serve” in rural or urban hospitals for 4-6 years for a reasonable wage. i’ve been wondering why this doesn’t seem to exist since 2008.
Never mind the jobs you had, tell me five classes you took in college:
1. Microbiology
2. Comparative Slaveries
3. The Early Middle Ages
4. History of Arkansas and the Southwest
5. Urban Geography
(And so many more)
1. Microbiology
2. Comparative Slaveries
3. The Early Middle Ages
4. History of Arkansas and the Southwest
5. Urban Geography
(And so many more)
Never mind the jobs you had, tell me five classes you took in college:
1. Marine Biology (we got to go out on a boat!)
2. The History of the Holocaust
3. Logic and Critical Thinking
4. Eastern Religions
5. The French Revolution
1. Marine Biology (we got to go out on a boat!)
2. The History of the Holocaust
3. Logic and Critical Thinking
4. Eastern Religions
5. The French Revolution
Never mind the jobs you had, tell me five classes you took in college:
1. Origins of Nazism
2. Dante’s Divine Comedy
3. Behavioral Ecology & Conservation Biology
4. Principles of Evolution
5. Thinking and Speaking About Thinking and Speaking
1. Origins of Nazism
2. Dante’s Divine Comedy
3. Behavioral Ecology & Conservation Biology
4. Principles of Evolution
5. Thinking and Speaking About Thinking and Speaking
January 31, 2026 at 1:46 PM
Never mind the jobs you had, tell me five classes you took in college:
1. Microbiology
2. Comparative Slaveries
3. The Early Middle Ages
4. History of Arkansas and the Southwest
5. Urban Geography
(And so many more)
1. Microbiology
2. Comparative Slaveries
3. The Early Middle Ages
4. History of Arkansas and the Southwest
5. Urban Geography
(And so many more)
Im excited to visit Auburn University next week to give a lecture on the public health legacy of the American Revolution as part of both their Humanities and Healthcare speaker series and their RevolutionaryLegacies speaker series for the 250th. cla.auburn.edu/news/article...
Auburn speaker series continues dialogue about importance of humanities in health care
The Medical and Health Humanities Speaker Series brings together faculty, staff, students and community members to introduce the importance of the humanities in health care.
cla.auburn.edu
January 30, 2026 at 11:41 AM
Im excited to visit Auburn University next week to give a lecture on the public health legacy of the American Revolution as part of both their Humanities and Healthcare speaker series and their RevolutionaryLegacies speaker series for the 250th. cla.auburn.edu/news/article...
Leave it to MAGA and MAHA to bring us back to the measles outbreaks of the Roaring 20s.
January 29, 2026 at 2:07 AM
Leave it to MAGA and MAHA to bring us back to the measles outbreaks of the Roaring 20s.
Reposted by Andrew Wehrman
Infectious diseases do not magically disappear just because you stop tracking and reporting. This is dangerous.
When diseases spread in silence, outbreaks go undetected for much longer and containment is more difficult.
All of this means more avoidable deaths.
www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdi...
When diseases spread in silence, outbreaks go undetected for much longer and containment is more difficult.
All of this means more avoidable deaths.
www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdi...
CDC Stopped Updating Key Vaccine, Infectious Disease Databases in 2025
The inaction 'demonstrates a profound disregard for human life,' says IDSA leader
www.medpagetoday.com
January 28, 2026 at 1:29 AM
Infectious diseases do not magically disappear just because you stop tracking and reporting. This is dangerous.
When diseases spread in silence, outbreaks go undetected for much longer and containment is more difficult.
All of this means more avoidable deaths.
www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdi...
When diseases spread in silence, outbreaks go undetected for much longer and containment is more difficult.
All of this means more avoidable deaths.
www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdi...
Reposted by Andrew Wehrman
Excellent article, combining real reporting and information with the intellectual training to give shape and meaning to events. Exactly what such writing should do, and exactly what both-sidesism and vapid op-eds don't do.
Last week in Minnesota, I watched ordinary people risk their lives to protect their neighbors. In the process, they not only won a significant—though not final—victory against authoritarianism, they proved virtually every MAGA social theory wrong. (gift link) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
January 27, 2026 at 3:10 PM
Excellent article, combining real reporting and information with the intellectual training to give shape and meaning to events. Exactly what such writing should do, and exactly what both-sidesism and vapid op-eds don't do.
Two years after the Boston Massacre a lantern in a balcony near the site illuminated a painting of the shooting with the words “The fatal effect of a standing army posted in a free city.”
January 26, 2026 at 2:18 AM
Two years after the Boston Massacre a lantern in a balcony near the site illuminated a painting of the shooting with the words “The fatal effect of a standing army posted in a free city.”
Bostonians commemorated the Boston Massacre annually for a dozen years from 1771-1783 or until independence from the government responsible was achieved.
Hugo Lowell told MSNOW that the Trump administration expects that the murder of Alex Pretti will "blow over and go away." They believe that Americans will forget about it in a week or so.
January 25, 2026 at 11:39 PM
Bostonians commemorated the Boston Massacre annually for a dozen years from 1771-1783 or until independence from the government responsible was achieved.
Reposted by Andrew Wehrman
As Jonathan Foster used to say in his Journalism 101 class: “If someone tells you it's raining and another tells you it's dry, it's not your job to quote them both. It's your job to look out the fucking window and find out which is true.”
To journalists everywhere: You cannot both-sides this.
To journalists everywhere: You cannot both-sides this.
January 25, 2026 at 12:11 AM
As Jonathan Foster used to say in his Journalism 101 class: “If someone tells you it's raining and another tells you it's dry, it's not your job to quote them both. It's your job to look out the fucking window and find out which is true.”
To journalists everywhere: You cannot both-sides this.
To journalists everywhere: You cannot both-sides this.
Anti-vaxxers and anti-public health folks also love the Gadsden flag, but Christopher Gadsden, creator of flag, was a commissioner in Charleston in charge of keeping weekly records of smallpox cases, hiring guards to quarantine them, and levying heavy fines on any who wantonly spread the disease.
One thing I’m thinking about today is the hollowness of all the “Don’t Tread on Me” extremists, who turn out to be just far-right extremists. Dems should retake the Gadsden flag.
Is there a good blue maker of Gadsden flags that doesn’t support far-right causes?
Is there a good blue maker of Gadsden flags that doesn’t support far-right causes?
January 24, 2026 at 10:33 PM
Anti-vaxxers and anti-public health folks also love the Gadsden flag, but Christopher Gadsden, creator of flag, was a commissioner in Charleston in charge of keeping weekly records of smallpox cases, hiring guards to quarantine them, and levying heavy fines on any who wantonly spread the disease.
Our government is not exactly out there trying to "establish justice and insure domestic tranquility," is it? You know, the first two duties mentioned in The Constitution after “We the people”
Attorney General Pam Bondi: "Our country was founded on law enforcement"
Bondi: "It's extremely organized. The signs they have are all matching, they're well written. And look at what's happening today. How did these people go out & get gas masks? These protesters. Would you know how to walk out on the street and buy a gas mask? Think about that. We're not gonna have it"
January 24, 2026 at 8:23 PM
Our government is not exactly out there trying to "establish justice and insure domestic tranquility," is it? You know, the first two duties mentioned in The Constitution after “We the people”
Reposted by Andrew Wehrman
The 250th will be similar to the centennial celebration for the American Civil War (1961-65): systematic whitewashing of slavery and colonialism amid multiple national civil rights movements. The more things change...
Signs about the history of slavery in the U.S. and the 9 people George Washington enslaved are being removed right now at the President’s House Site in Philadelphia, across from Independence Hall, months after the Trump administration threatend to do so.
How far we have not come in 250 years.
How far we have not come in 250 years.
January 23, 2026 at 1:43 PM
The 250th will be similar to the centennial celebration for the American Civil War (1961-65): systematic whitewashing of slavery and colonialism amid multiple national civil rights movements. The more things change...