In the 1890s New York’s Lower East Side was the most densely
populated square mile on the planet, with largely immigrant residents. A third
of children born there died before their fifth birthday often due to epidemics
of diarrhea, smallpox, typhus, child labor, poor sanitation, and other
preventable conditions. But by 1911 the child death rate had fallen sharply and
the community was among the most healthy in the country. By her retirement in
1923, Dr. Josephine Baker, director of the city’s Bureau of Child Hygiene, was
credited with saving the lives of 90,000 children. In her very entertaining
autobiography Dr. Baker describes how she did it. Read more on this book and
others in the CT Health Policy Book Club
