This exemplary comparative analysis of parallel health crises in France and the United States draws on the best tools available to explain diverging national outcomes. Bringing together a sophisticated political sociology of the state, with cultural, network and strategic action analysis, Nathanson and Bergeron produce a brilliant account that will should inform many other future studies. This book should be widely read and discussed.
Constance A. Nathanson is currently Professor Emerita at Columbia University. She has over 45 years of experience in research on sociological dimensions of health and health policy. Her work over the past 30 years has focused on the history, politics, and sociology of public health policy and policy change in the United States and in its peer developed countries. Recent publications include articles theorizing policy and policy change in public
health from a sociological perspective, more substantive articles on tobacco and gun control policy, the role of social movements in policy change, and essays on health inequalities, as well as a book, Disease Prevention as Social Change (2007), that describes and interprets public health policy shifts across the past two
centuries in the United States, France, Great Britain, and Canada.
Henri Bergeron is a Senior CNRS Research Professor at the Center for Sociology of Organizations, Sciences Po, Director of the Chair "Transforming
organization" at Sciences Po. He is also co-director of the Health Department of Interdisciplinary Centre for the Evaluation of Public Policies (Centre of Excellence - LABEX), and Scientific coordinator of the Chair in Health Studies-Sciences Po. He is the director of the Master on "Organizational behavior and Human Resources" at Sciences Po and the Scientific Director of the "Management and Public Affairs" track at Sciences Po's School of Public Affairs. He teaches and conducts research on
organizational behavior, institutional changes and drivers (including digital transformation), on institutional entrepreneurship, and leadership, and on power in and between organizations (in particular in the field of health).