In AT WHAT COST (Oxford University Press; on sale March 16, 2021; hardcover; $29.95), CUNY Distinguished Professor Nicholas Freudenberg examines how globalization, financial speculation, monopolies, and control of science and technology have enhanced the ability of corporations and their allies to overwhelm influences of government, family, community, and faith. It describes the ways that our current political and economic system has made it more difficult for ordinary people to get the food, health care, education, work, transportation, and social connections — what the book calls the six pillars of health — they need to maintain their health.
At What Cost argues that the world created by 21st-century capitalism is simply not fit to solve our most serious public health problems, from the covid pandemic and the climate emergency to opioid addiction and deaths of despair. Moreover, capitalism and systemic racism intersect to amplify the harms of each and widen stark inequities in health. However, author and public health expert Nicholas Freudenberg also argues that human and planetary well-being constitute a powerful mobilizing idea for a new social movement, one that will restore the power of individuals and communities in our democracy.
At What Cost is available from Oxford University Press as a hardcover or e-book and from other online and independent book sellers.
Watch the book launch where Freudenberg discusses his new book with Professors Marion Nestle and Mary Bassett and read this interview with Freudenberg in Salon. Visit the At What Cost section on this website here.
Corporations and Health Watch 