Andrew Wehrman
Andrew Wehrman is a historian and author of The Contagion of Liberty: The Politics of Smallpox in the American Revolution: A timely and fascinating account of the raucous public demand for smallpox inoculation during the American Revolution and the origin of vaccination in the United States.
The Revolutionary War broke out during a smallpox epidemic, and in response, General George Washington ordered the inoculation of the Continental Army. But Washington did not have to convince fearful colonists to protect themselves against smallpox―they were the ones demanding it. In The Contagion of Liberty, Wehrman describes a revolution within a revolution, where the violent insistence for freedom from disease ultimately helped American colonists achieve independence from Great Britain.
