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William & Myrtle Harris Distinguished Lectureship in Science and Civilization

Tuesday, May 25, 2021
12:00pm to 1:15pm
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Online Event
Fighting the First Wave
Peter Baldwin, Global Distinguished Professor, NYU; Professor of History, UCLA,
  • Public Event

COVID-19 is the biggest public health and economic disaster of our time. It has posed the same threat across the globe, yet countries in Asia, the Americas, and Europe responded very differently; some have clearly fared much better than others. In this definitive account, Baldwin shows that how nations responded depended above all on the political tools available - how firmly could the authorities order citizens' lives and how willingly would they be obeyed? Whether citizens would follow their leaders' requests and how soon they would tire of their demands were crucial to hopes of taming the pandemic.

Following his lecture, Baldwin will be joined by Professor of Social Science History Tracy Dennison and Rea A. and Lela G. Axline Professor of Business Economics Jean-Laurent Rosenthal for a panel discussion moderated by Robert M. Abbey Professor of History Diana K. Buchwald before taking questions from the audience.

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Peter Baldwin is Professor of History at UCLA and Global Distinguished Professor at NYU. He is the author of Contagion and the State in Europe, 1830–1930 (1999), Disease and Democracy: The Industrialized World Faces AIDS (2005), and The Copyright Wars: Three Centuries of Trans-Atlantic Battle (2014). His latest book, Fighting the First Wave, was published this past March. His next book, Command and Persuade: Crime, Law, and the State across History, is forthcoming in fall 2021.

For more information, please contact Sini Elvington by email at [email protected] or visit the William and Myrtle Harris Distinguished Lectureship in Science and Civilization webpage.