University of Guelph professors, Linda Mahood and Catherine Carstairs will be launch their newest books, "Thumbing a Ride: Hitchhikers, Hostels and Counterculture" and "Be Wise! Be Healthy!: Morality and Citizenship in Canadian Public Health Campaigns", in the eBar, on Thursday. November 15th, 6:00 PM.
About the books:
Thumbing a Ride examines the rise and fall of hitchhiking in the 1970s, drawing on records from the time. The Trudeau Liberals responded to youth unemployment by subsidizing a network of hostels to make travel an educational adventure, and many equated hitching and hostelling with the freedom to do their own thing.
Be Wise! Be Healthy! explores the history of public health in Canada from the 1920s to the 1970s, a period that saw a massive expansion of education programs through the Health League of Canada. The league, with roots in the moralizing social hygiene movement, urged Canadians to drink pasteurized milk, immunize their children, and avoid extramarital sex. It advocated fluoridating the water supply and counselled Canadians to see health as a responsibility of citizenship – with doctors and dentists as experts to guide them in that duty.