On December 29, 2019, the renowned American historian Timothy Snyder fell seriously ill. Unable to stand, in a state of mental confusion, he waited for hours in the emergency room before his problem was diagnosed and he was rushed into surgery.

In the following days, as the first light of the new year came through his window and his life hung by a thread, he began to contemplate the particularly critical and fragile issue of health, "which is not recognized in America as a human right, but without which all rights and freedoms are meaningless," as he poignantly writes. And this was before the pandemic.

Since then, we have seen American hospitals, understaffed and inadequately supplied, buckle under the successive waves of patients affected by the coronavirus. The Trump administration made matters worse, betting on misinformation and looking towards profiteering.

The system of "commodified" medicine, as Snyder characterizes the private healthcare system, has failed miserably. "Our Malady" is a cry of anguish. Examining some of the darkest moments of the country's recent history and his personal experience, Snyder does not merely seek a way out of America's "healthcare malady," but also explains how the decline of health within a system that aims solely for profit can be suspended and how to retrieve its human-centered content.

Health is a matter of democracy, Snyder emphasizes. Only by securing healthcare as a human right, elevating the status of doctors and recognizing medical knowledge as a guiding principle, can we create a free and truly democratic society.