[Overwhelming Differences at the Expense of Many Small Details]

McCoy's comparative study focuses on the different styles and reasonings by which the United States and Great Britain responded and continue to respond to epidemics. While disease control in Britain focused on the environment, comparatively later efforts in the United States concentrated on quarantine and control of the infected. Drawing on the concept of path dependence, McCoy argues for the continuing importance of the historical factors surrounding the emergence of the first disease control structures. In doing so, he considers the centralisation of the state, a coherent theory of disease, pressures of civil society, and the idea of the population as a social body to be crucial. However, his pleasantly lucid study inevitably omits some important research areas and questions.