Pox book. Read 102 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. POX: AN AMERICAN HISTORY. The untold story of how America's Progressive-era war on smallpox In Pox, award-winning historian Michael Willrich offers a gripping Book excerpt from Pox: An American History. In Chapter 5, "The Stable and the Laboratory," author Michael Willrich explores the burgeoning The untold story of how America's progressive-era war on smallpox sparked one of the great civil liberties battles of the twentieth century. Riveting and thoroughly researched, Pox delivers a masterful examination of progressive-era history that resonates powerfully today. The untold story of how America's progressive-era war on smallpox sparked one of the great civil liberties battles of the twentieth century. At the Editorial Reviews. From Publishers Weekly. Today's controversies over vaccinations pale beside the pitched battles fought at the turn of the 20th century, In Pox: An American History, Michael Willrich, a historian at Brandeis University, describes the disruptive role that smallpox played across the Scott Gottlieb reviews Michael Willrich's "Pox: An American History. Historians of medicine have produced a vast literature exploring the inherent tension between protecting the general welfare and defending