The idea of 'public health' could be described as an endeavor of figuring out how to promote health protective measures across populations of disparate individuals who nevertheless depend on one another in important ways. At the same time, we are a society which prizes personal responsibility and seeks out individual attention and expression. How do we keep a population safe and healthy while respecting our highly individualized national character? This course examines this tension through reference to novels, narrative accounts, drama, and essays where you will have an opportunity to think through these seminal 'threshold' questions on your own. This course is offered as both EGL 290 and HPH 201.