Simukai Chigudu, The Political Life of an Epidemic: cholera, crisis and citizenship in Zimbabwe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (hb £78.99 – 978 1 108 48910 2; pb £26.99 – 978 1 108 73344 1). 2020, v + 230 pp.

Abstract

The book provides a valuable addition to growing calls for more interdisciplinary approaches to understanding and responding to epidemics, and for the integration of social-scientific analysis to shed light on the social dimensions of disease and effectively engage rather than eschew the political nature of health emergencies. [...]as the book shows, short-term fixes may simply prolong the status quo and even undermine states’ capacity for structural transformation, leaving the next crisis to be a matter of when, not if. The Political Life of an Epidemic provides us with an invaluable template for how to produce a post-mortem of a health emergency.