not only pih co-founder dr. paul farmer, medical expert and historical humanitarian. He was also a prolific researcher and writer, using his medical and anthropological training, as well as his proximity to the poor, to write books throughout his career on health, history, and human rights.
Below is a list of some of his most powerful works, arranged chronologically. Although they span time and part oceans, these books represent one way in which dr. The farmer will continue to teach generations to come and affirm his guiding belief and ours: that it is possible to change the world and heal injustice.
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help and accusation
While serving Haitian communities as a young doctor, Farmer wrote about the country’s HIV epidemic for his doctoral thesis in anthropology, which later became his first book.
farmer depicts the lives of Haitian villagers and places them in historical context, showing how seemingly unconnected events, such as the construction of a dam, led them to become victims of AIDS or AIDS. His goal is to erase the stereotypical accusations leveled at Haiti, as the source and breeder of the epidemic, and to demonstrate the role that poverty and social inequality played in the spread of HIV.
infections and inequalities
The title may suggest heavy reading for clinicians, but infections and inequalities has a clear message: treatable infectious diseases still plague the world because people who suffer from them experience social inequalities. the farmer tells the stories of the patients he treated for hiv and tuberculosis in haiti and shows what it means to be poor, challenging the prevailing ideas of academics and public health authorities that overlook these causes of disease.
The story of 19-year-old Robert David on a heroic quest for tuberculosis medicine is one of the most powerful pieces of writing by a farmer.
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In short, the book conveys pih’s message that poverty makes you sick.
pathologies of power
Drawing on his experiences in Haiti, Chiapas, and Russia, Pathologies of Power is one farmer’s forceful demonstration of the abused rights of poor people by those in positions of power. it serves as a rallying cry for the world to take action against “structural violence,” a phrase adopted by farmers to describe the atrocities suffered by impoverished people that many simply consider “the way things are.” As Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen writes in the foreword, “Paul Farmer teaches us how to stop whistling and start thinking.”
the uses of haiti
in the uses of haiti, a farmer provides impassioned evidence of the historical ties between the united states and the political turmoil in haiti, the consequences of which are felt most by the poor. As the title implies, Haiti and its poor are victims of the practices of others in the country. the farmer does not sweeten the bond between us. foreign policy and the devastation felt by many Haitians. he points out, for example, that he was a u.s. army school in georgia, formerly known as the school of the americas, which formally trained one of haiti’s national police chiefs in torture methods.
partner of the poor
partner to the poor is a 660-page collection of 20 years of some of the farmers’ publications. Roughly chronologically, the book traces farmers’ thinking over time. The chapters are organized into four sections, allowing for a deeper dive for anyone interested in topics such as his previous anthropological work on HIV or structural violence and human rights.
haiti after the earthquake
Haiti After the Earthquake is a farmer’s descriptive and moving first-hand account of treating the wounded and sick shortly after the country’s January 2010 earthquake, and of the cholera epidemic and the chaos that followed. it continued long after the riots had died down. The book, which includes chapters by his friends, family and colleagues, is an attempt to remember and record the catastrophe, make sense of it and identify causes that are not only natural. draws on the history of haiti to show how the country and its capital were vulnerable to disaster. and offers the lessons learned from the messy funding and humanitarian efforts that resulted in more pain for a deeply wounded Haiti.
to repair the world
To Repair the World is a collection of farmers’ commencement speeches intended to guide, inspire, and challenge college, public health, and medical school students. his humor, outrage and enthusiasm shine through in the stories he shares about the people he has met and the work he has done around the world. His advice includes hints about where all of his greatest achievements on this planet came from and what the movie The Matrix has to do with the future of medicine. each page is full of ideas and reflections.
in the company of the poor
This small volume is largely a conversation between the farmer and Father Gustavo Gutiérrez, an 87-year-old Catholic priest considered the founder of liberation theology. Farmer first read Gutiérrez’s work when he was a young doctor in Haiti. much of the peruvian priest’s writings inspired the farmers’ approach to social medicine and have guided pih’s work ever since. It’s a good read for those looking to understand some of PiH’s principles, such as our “preferential option for the poor” and “accompaniment.”
reimagining global health
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Written by multiple co-authors, Reimagining Global Health draws from a range of disciplines, presenting theory, historical evidence, case studies, and frameworks for those interested in understanding global health. students learn everything from how smallpox was eradicated to how foreign aid works. Unlike a common textbook, the authors champion global health as a new field of study. farmer defines global health as a “collection of problems” and presents this book as a “toolkit” to address them. his teachings are woven throughout and sections are devoted to pih’s work. While his primary goal is to educate, reinventing global health is also a call to action.
fevers, enmities and diamonds
in november 2014, a farmer was in freetown, sierra leone, breaking bread with a group of ebola survivors as the world’s largest virus epidemic spread across the country and west africa.
“It was the night I met Ibrahim,” the farmer recalled, referring to one of the survivors. “We started talking and he told me that he had lost 23 members of his family to Ebola. he surprised me into silence. and what he said next was: “I would like you to interview me about my experience.”
There, the farmer said, is when he decided to write a book.
Fevers, Feuds, and Diamonds: Ebola and the Ravages of History details the origins and aftermath of the Ebola outbreak; the stories of patients, doctors and caregivers; the international response; farmers’ own memories of Ebola treatment units; and the historical chapters that support it all.
and in a book about a historic epidemic, published during a historic pandemic, a farmer writes about where we go from here, amid covid-19 and the extreme and ongoing health inequalities around the world.
read an interview with a farmer and an excerpt from fevers, feuds and diamonds
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