Purchase
The Untold Story of Yellow Fever, the Epidemic that Shaped Our History
Berkley
November 2006
On Sale: November 7, 2006
320 pages ISBN: 0425212025 EAN: 9780425212028 Hardcover
Add to Wish List
Non-Fiction
In this 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.
Comments
No comments posted.
Registered users may leave comments.
Log in or register now!
|