American Tragedy of COVID-19

Naomi Zack is professor of philosophy at Lehman College, CUNY. Her most recent Rowman and Littlefield books are Progressive Anonymity: from Identity Politics to Evidence-Based Government (2020) and Reviving the Social Compact: Inclusive Citizenship in an Age of Extreme Politics (2018). Earlier books include: TheTheory of ApplicativeJustice:An EmpiricalPragmaticApproach to Correcting Racial Injustice (2016),White Privilege and Black Rights: The Injustice of US Police Racial Profiling and Homicide (April 2015), The Ethics and Mores of Race: Equality after the History of Philosophy (2011/2015), Ethics for Disaster, (2009, 2010).

• Preface and AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: From the Middle of Things1. The Virus in the World2. Federalism and Localism3. The US Culture Wars and Rhetoric4. Inequalities and Marginalization5. Police Reform6. Education7. The Economy8. Media9. Conspiracy10. The Ethics of Climate ChangeConclusion: Tragedy and ResilienceSelect BiographyAbout the Author

Drawing on her considerable expertise in disaster ethics and issues related to societal inequality, Naomi Zack explores how the COVID-19 pandemic has relentlessly exposed and amplified existing vulnerabilities and fault lines within the United States. With remarkable clarity and precision, she illustrates the centrality of ethics to understanding how the pandemic has unfolded, as the disaster has been shaped by the choices we have individually and collectively made. This is an impressive and wide-ranging book that succinctly captures the ways that COVID-19 has interacted with many of the most pressing questions facing the United States.