Rickets in historical perspective

The transformation of nostalgia derived from shifting societal conditions and changes in the structure and basis of medical knowledge, calling for a form of analysis called the social construction of disease. Warren's book on rickets provides a case study of what can be accomplished through a hybrid analysis that weaves together society, biology, and medicine. Warren's analysis resists this effort to racialise a phenomenon born more of differences in “geography, built environment, economics, climate, and childrearing practices” than of differences in skin colour. Starved for Light effectively exposes how the profound effects of racism on health can hide under the cover of a monolithic concept of race.