| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 92.2

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 92.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Water, Race, and Disease. By Werner Troesken. (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2004. xx, 251 pp. $35.00, ISBN 0-262-20148-8.)
In Water, Race, and Disease, Werner Troesken addresses the question of why black life expectancy rates increased in the early twentieth century during a time of segregation. Troesken answers the question by arguing that African Americans had greater access to public water and sewer systems than public health historians have assumed. He suggests that such facilities improved health status, with an even greater impact on black than on white Americans because blacks had less private resources to combat disease.	1
According to Troesken, African Americans received city services because of white self-interest. As scholars have noted previously, white people feared that disease would spread to them from black households. Furthermore, Troesken indicates that cities were less segregated than we have assumed, and the network structure of water and sewer mains required that all residents be included. Racism existed, he argues, but it did not hinder black access to these public services.	. . .

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