Everything Is Tuberculosis: Chapter 2 Summary & Analysis

After returning to Indianapolis, Green becomes fascinated by TB and discovers how much influence it had over global history and culture. TB led to the creation of the cowboy hat, for instance; in the 19th century people, with TB were told to go to arid climates (though other travel recommendations were also popular, as long as it was to a rural place), and one such man disliked the hats worn in frontier towns so much that he created his own: the cowboy hat. New Mexico was also created in part thanks to TB, as officials wanted English-speaking people with TB to populate the state. Finally, TB also influenced the start of World War I, as the teenage assassins of Archduke Franz Ferdinand were made desperate and reckless by their fatal diagnosis of TB. Green emphasizes, though, that viewing history only through the lens of TB can lessen history’s complexity.