Acts of public defiance towards biomedical public health policies have occurred throughout modern history, from resistance to early smallpox vaccines in 19th-century Britain and America to more recent intransigence to efforts to contain the Ebola outbreak in Central and West Africa.

Thinking through Resistance examines a diverse range of case studies of opposition to biomedical public health policies - from resistance to HPV vaccinations in Texas to disputes over HIV prevention research in Malawi - to assess the root causes of opposition. It is argued that far from being...