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In this national-bestselling account, a journalist traces the course of yellow fever, stopping in 1878 Memphis to "vividly [evoke] the Faulkner-meets-'Dawn of the Dead' horrors,"*-and moving on to today's strain of the killer virus.
Over the course of history, yellow fever has paralyzed governments, halted commerce, quarantined cities, moved the U.S. capital, and altered the outcome of wars. During a single summer in Memphis alone, it cost more lives than the Chicago fire, the San Francisco earthquake, and the Johnstown flood combined.
In 1900, the U.S. sent three doctors to Cuba to discover how yellow fever was spread. There, they launched one of history's most controversial human studies. Compelling and terrifying, The American Plague depicts the story of yellow fever and its reign in this country-and in Africa, where even today it strikes thousands every year. With "arresting tales of heroism,"** it is a story as much about the nature of human beings as it is about the nature of disease.
- Sales Rank: #305163 in Books
- Published on: 2007-09-04
- Released on: 2007-09-04
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.30" h x 1.00" w x 5.50" l, .81 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 400 pages
From Publishers Weekly
In a summer of panic and death in 1878, more than half the population of Memphis, Tenn., fled the raging yellow fever epidemic, which finally waned when cooler weather set in. The disease had been transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which came in swarms on ships from the Caribbean or West Africa. This account has a narrower scope than James Dickerson's recent Yellow Fever, focusing on the Memphis tragedy, but journalist Crosby offers a forceful narrative of a disease's ravages and the quest to find its cause and cure. Crosby is particularly good at evoking the horrific conditions in Memphis, "a city of corpses" and rife with illness characterized by high fever, black vomit and hemorrhaging, treated by primitive methods. Crosby also relates arresting tales of heroism, such as how two nuns returned to the quarantined city from a vacation to nurse the victims. The author profiles scientists, some of whom died in their fight to identify the cause of this deadly disease. She also describes more recent outbreaks in Africa: yellow fever is making a frightening comeback despite the existence of a vaccine. Photos. Barnes & Noble Discover New Writers selection. (Nov. 7)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
"Engrossing...Crosby, a journalist, profiles the outbreak as it rips through Memphis, the city hardest hit. A first-rate medical detective drama...It is good to be reminded of the occasional nobility of the human spirit." - New York Times Book Review
"Gripping...highly readable." - Newsweek
"...painstaking investigation is important not just for the sweep of detail but for getting things impeccably right. Whether Crosby is writing about...Memphis, the death of a family in a plantation house in Mississippi or the itinerary of Walter Reed in Havana, she provides meticulous documentation to back up the narrative." - The Commercial Appeal, Memphis
"Through vivid prose and classic storytelling, Crosby seamlessly blends history and science to tell us how yellow fever haunted the nation--and why, if we're not extremely vigilant, it will haunt us again." - Hampton Sides, author of Hellhound on His Trail and Ghost Soldiers
"In her masterful debut, Molly Caldwell Crosby uses rich detail and a stunning cast of characters to bring to vivid life the devastating yellow fever epidemic of 1878...this book captivated me from the first line--and it haunted me long after I'd turned the final page." - Candice Millard, author of Destiny of the Republic and The River of Doubt
From the Author
I am not from Memphis originally, and after moving here, I began hearing about the tragic yellow fever epidemic and its far reaching consequences. As a non-Memphian, I was struck by how few people outside of this region had ever heard of the epidemic, which was the greatest urban disaster of its time, with a death toll higher than the Chicago fire and San Francisco earthquake--combined. That is what inspired me to tell this story. I wanted to take the reader into Memphis in 1878, into the city's problems and promise as summer approaches. While most U.S. cities in both the North and the South suffered through yellow fever outbreaks for two-hundred years, 1878 stands out as the worst--when Memphis became a "city of corpses"--and the last major yellow fever epidemic in the U.S. Out of the despair of that epidemic came action from the federal government to finally find the cause of these debilitating outbreaks. It was twenty years in the making, and it led to one of our greatest successes in medical history--Walter Reed's work in Cuba that finally proved mosquitoes, not "miasma" or filth, brought on a yellow fever season. In the end, his work led to later development of a vaccine--the same one still in use today. But, like the work of countless doctors and nurses in Memphis, it came at a great price. It has been said that no other disease killed so many of the doctors, nurses and scientists trying to study it. That is what struck me most when writing the book and still stays with me today--the many people, ordinary citizens and doctors alike, in Memphis, Cuba and elsewhere, who literally gave their lives in the fight against this disease.
Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Mosquitoes, Fever, and America
By Gordon M. Verber
Over three generations ago Hans Zinsser wrote "Rats, Lice and History" telling the story of lice and men (sorry) and the typhus Rickettsia.
He founded the literary genre marked by the examination of disease, history, and having tripartite titles; Recent examples: Guns, Germs, and Steel; Viruses, Plagues, and History.
Though Ms. Crosby did not call her book "Mosquitoes, Fever, and America," "The American Plague" nicely continues the tradition of this fascinating venue.
The subtitle (why must books so often have subtitles now?) claims this to be "The Untold Story of Yellow Fever, The Epidemic That Shaped Our History", which is more than a bit of a reach - Especially, given the existence of the very similarly themed and titled adolescent's book "An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793" (2003) by Jim Murphy (which, whatever your age, is also worth reading).
It is arguable that the subtitle means only to refer to the Memphis outbreak, but that single event did not "shape our history," it was the repeated outbreaks of Yellow Jack beginning with those in the northeast ports in 1699 that truly did change the history of all of North America. The subtitle is simply annoying marketing hyperbole - though such an unfounded, untrue, claim did nearly make me put the book back on the shelf unopened. Which would have been a shame, as I enjoyed the book greatly.
"(The) American Plague" details the impact of an outbreak of Yellow Fever (YF) in Memphis, Tennessee (the author's home) in the year 1878, and follows with an in-depth examination of the subsequent discovery of the means of transmission, prevention, vaccination, cause, and sad lack of cure for the disease.
This book also traces the origin of the disease, and reviews how it likely came to the Americas from its home in Africa as a consequence of the slave trade. The occurrence of YF epidemics in Europe (perhaps even dating back to the mid 500's) is not discussed, which is forgivable given the focus of the book, though the fact that 300,000 people perished from YF in Spain in the 1800's makes it clear that YF was (is) a scourge far beyond America's shores.
The author brings to life the horror and uncertainly of epidemic disease at the dawn of scientific medicine. She recounts the difficulty of seeing the true nature of a disease though the conflicting overlay of current knowledge and cultural belief (a current example: autism).
Further, she points to the mendacity of businessmen who may have, in their efforts to prevent disruption of commerce by quarantine, allowed this outbreak to spread from New Orleans to Memphis in the first place. She briefly touches on the ethics of human, of animal, and of self, experimentation. It is not a simple book, though it is clearly, if at times unevenly, written.
Unlike most popular science books, she includes an extensive source bibliography that points to precisely where her material has come from. This is a very welcome addition. Over all, this is a solidly written, well researched and interesting book. I strongly recommend it.
I also strongly recommend that you consider that the World Health Organization estimates that YF still kills 30,000 people a year. Most of these deaths could be prevented by vaccination and by mosquito control. Over the past few years Yellow Jack has been re-emerging and spreading in the western hemisphere. This spread is, as Ms. Crosby shows that to a degree the Memphis epidemic was, a political failure marked by primacy of business interests and of underfunded and inadequate public health measures.
Pray that it does not return to America.
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Notes and references:
The original article which established mosquitoes as the vector of YF was "The Etiology of Yellow Fever: An Additional Note"; Walter Reed, MD, Jas. Carroll, MD, and Aristides Agramonte, MD; JAMA. 1901;36:431-440. This is on-line at:
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For YF vaccine information:
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For YF vaccine recommendations:
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For the current state (Feb 09)of Yellow Fever in the western hemisphere:
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For general travel vaccination recommendations:
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0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
A cautinary, touching tale of a terrible time in our history.
By Pat Morgan
Well written, exceptionally well-researched, timely, and a much-needed warning that we must never let our guard down when it comes to mosquito-borne diseases. Her description of the yellow fever plague in Memphis was especially touching.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Intriguing yet dry towards the end.
By P. cook
A fascinating glimpsed into 20th century medicine and the struggles both society and practitioners faced. Excellent historical account if one of the worst diseases we have challenged and will challenge again.
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