The American Plague: The Untold Story of Yellow Fever, the Epidemic that Shaped Our History

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The American Plague: The Untold Story of Yellow Fever, the Epidemic that Shaped Our History

by Molly Caldwell Crosby (Goodreads Author)

3.86 of 5 stars 3.86 · rating details · 1,641 ratings · 208 reviews

Slave ships brought it to America as far back as 1648-and over the centuries, yellow fever epidemics plagued the United States. Carried along the mighty Mississippi River, it ravaged towns from New Orleans to St. Louis. New York City lost 2,000 lives in one year alone. It even forced the nation's capital to relocate from Philadelphia to Washington, DC.

The American Plague...more

Hardcover, 308 pages

Published November 7th 2006 by Berkley Hardcover (first published January 1st 2006)

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Aug 10, 2007 Grumpus rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history

My interest in this book was piqued by a series that appeared our local newspaper.

The summers of the 1870s in the south was a scary time to be alive. Just think about how bad mosquitoes are today and all the bites you get. Imagine not knowing that these little insects were the cause of whole families being wiped out. The horrible symptoms, the fear...the sadness!

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Oct 16, 2007 Bridget rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: everyone

Shelves: socialscience

I'm always surprised by how much we collectively forget about our past. This book sucked me right in, and made me very, very glad that I wasn't born 100 years ago. It chronicles the history of Yellow Fever in the United States, and the effort led by Dr. Walter Reed to understand, and eradicate, the disease. Learned a lot reading this one.

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Dec 04, 2008 Allison rated it 1 of 5 stars

This book was interesting from an historical perspective, though it's descriptions were often needlessly hyperbolic, a flaw shared by many books that tackle infection--as if the authors are always a bit worried that if they don't remind us that "the victim became a palate of hideous color," for example, or that "the family mansion had now become a tomb," we will get bored with the science and history and go away. I don't regret reading this book, but I gave it a very low rating because of the ex...more This book was interesting from an historical perspective, though it's descriptions were often needlessly hyperbolic, a flaw shared by many books that tackle infection--as if the authors are always a bit worried that if they don't remind us that "the victim became a palate of hideous color," for example, or that "the family mansion had now become a tomb," we will get bored with the science and history and go away. I don't regret reading this book, but I gave it a very low rating because of the extremely poor job that the author does in explaining the science behind the epidemic. One of many examples:

A virus is one of the smallest beings in evolution's survival of the fittest, mutating and coalescing in order to thrive, its ultimate goal being epidemic.

To begin with, there are problems with the phrase survival of the fittest, as it is commonly interpreted by the lay reader to mean survival of the strongest, which is not what Darwin intended at all. "Fittest" in this context actually means the organism best adapted to its environment will survive to reproduce. Most evolutionary biologists these days stay away from that phrase because of its erroneous implications. Coalescing has no scientific meaning, and just feeds nicely into the "ultimate goal" phrase, which is, of course, ridiculous, as viruses do not have goals. This kind of writing is irresponsible, sows confusion, and reflects extremely poorly on Crosby. She goes on, to reveal more incompetence, which frankly I find utterly staggering, as this is supposed to be a book about a virus(!!):

It is uncertain whether viruses evolved from a single cell, becoming more complex, or whether they devolved into something simpler, more efficient, gracefully infectious.

Though I do love the phrase "gracefully infectious," this passage makes it sound as if viruses are multicellular (specifically "Evolved from a single cell, becoming more complex"). If viruses evolved from the bottom up, as it were, they would likely be evolving from naked RNA.

The text is peppered with other scientific inaccuracies, some flagrant, some more subtle, but far far too many for me to detail here. I found them to be irritating and to constantly remind me of the poor quality of this text. I am curious if a very knowledgeable historian would find this work similarly peppered with errors and distortions for dramatic effect.

If you would like to read an excellent historical and scientific account of an epidemic, I would recommend Steven Johnson's The Ghost Map . Or Barry's The Great Influenza. (less)

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Mar 20, 2012 Lauren rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: us-history, science

Crosby has written a solid history of 3 events in yellow fever history, one leading to the other.

1) the Mississippi Valley yellow fever epidemic of 1878 (she focuses primarily on Memphis, the hardest hit area) and the forensics that studied how the disease was carried to Memphis via a steamer that eluded quarantine in New Orleans. Also successive cases that plagued the southern US (and even northern areas in warm summer months) and the need for research into what was causing this disease.

2) the...more Crosby has written a solid history of 3 events in yellow fever history, one leading to the other.

1) the Mississippi Valley yellow fever epidemic of 1878 (she focuses primarily on Memphis, the hardest hit area) and the forensics that studied how the disease was carried to Memphis via a steamer that eluded quarantine in New Orleans. Also successive cases that plagued the southern US (and even northern areas in warm summer months) and the need for research into what was causing this disease.

2) the US Army's Yellow Fever Commission in Cuba, and the scientists that worked to prove the mosquito as vector theory proposed by Carlos Finlay twenty years earlier. Chief among the scientists was Walter Reed. (I enjoyed her short biographical sketch of Reed - someone I knew very little about, despite years of working down the street from the hospital that bore his name...) While several of the scientists and medical volunteers succumbed to the disease (or later complications from the disease) it is clear that the work done at the dawn of the 20th-century forever changed medical history.

3) the after-effects: prevention through public health information, public works implementation, urban planning and sanitation, finding a vaccine, an African origin point, and the looming threat of viral mutation/adaptation and more yellow fever cases worldwide (including a 2002 case of a south Texas man).

The book was fascinating, both in its cultural and scientific history. I learned a lot from the stories and accounts of the doctors in the Yellow Fever Commission, and the discussion of medical ethics in that time, e.g. vivisection, patient consent, and medical "martyrs" who gave their lives for scientific progress. An interesting quote from Crosby (page 223): "I can think of no other disease that killed so many scientists studying it."

My 4-star rating is more of a 4.5 or 4.75 - there were a few instances when Crosby's melodramatic style was too much for me. Her section and chapter endings are over-the-top. I can almost hear the organ music or the Twilight Zone music fading in. (One that particularly stood out was "Then, the prey turned on the predator." *Dun Dun Duuuunnn*) But it was easy to just roll my eyes and continue reading...

Highly recommended if you are interested in medical and scientific history, the Spanish-American War, Caribbean/Latin American studies, and/or public health.
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Mar 05, 2009 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2007, historical-non-fiction, medical, non-fiction

this was a really good book. i enjoy a good disease/plague book (the last one was The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History). this one detailed yellow fever, how it came over from africa via the slave trade, how there was a HUGE epidemic in memphis, how that lead to the creation of the us government health commission (or whatever the official name was), and how that lead to walter reed and others doing experiments in cuba.
DUDE. i had no idea about any of this.
we kn...more this was a really good book. i enjoy a good disease/plague book (the last one was The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History). this one detailed yellow fever, how it came over from africa via the slave trade, how there was a HUGE epidemic in memphis, how that lead to the creation of the us government health commission (or whatever the official name was), and how that lead to walter reed and others doing experiments in cuba.
DUDE. i had no idea about any of this.
we know from the flu book that the us medical system sucked prior to the creation of johns hopkins. it took longer to get an ma than an md. so for this reason people had no idea what was causing yellow fever. they thought it was a germ and was spread by unsanitary conditions (this because germ therory was hot then, and because sanitation was a new trend). people had no idea that the fever was spread by mosquitos, even though it had recently been proven that malaria was spread that way.
anywho, a bunch of people were working on figuring out what caused it. an italian dude said it was a bacteria, but walter reed and his crew disproved that theory early on. they thought it was spread by mosquitos (it can also be spread by blood, so if you injected yourself with dirty fever blood during the right point in the incubation period, you would get the disease too), but they had to prove it.
so they did human experiments in cuba on themselves and volunteers.
today we’d be all like OMG human experiments and put them in prison, but back then there weren’t really laws. yes, it was frowned upon, but....
personally, i think if the only way you can cure something huge like this is by doing experiments on humans, you should do it. they should be CONSENTING (reed et al did have consent forms, which was revolutionary at the time) and well informed, and compensated, but we should be able to do studies and experiments.
so, they did experiments with tainted clothing (a lot of folks thought you could get it that way) and with mosquitos and it was proven that you could not get yellow fever just by touching something that a infected person had touched. but, if you were bitten by a skeeter that had infected blood or the virus in it, you could get the fever. this was huge, because yellow fever had been one of the biggest killers for over 200 years.
mosquito prevention was the key to preventing outbreaks of the disease. so sanitation became even more important, as did sewer systems and mosquito netting, etc. the type of mosquito that carried the disease was almost eradicated in the us and europe, but then of course we (in the us) fucked up and they are present again. luckily, we have good insect repellent.
amazingly, yellow fever is still in the world today (i had no idea it still existed). since it is a jungle fever, the mosquitos in the jungles of africa and south america just transmit it to monkeys, who give it back to the skeeters, who sometimes bite an unknowing traveller or get on a boat bound for elsewhere.
there is a vaccine for yellow fever, but it isn’t available in third world countries, which is why people are still dying of it.
lookit all that information i retained! it really was an interesting book and a pretty quick read. if you’re interested in the us medical system’s development or virology or disease or anything like that, i highly recommend it.
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May 13, 2013 Corinne rated it 4 of 5 stars

How much do you know about Yellow Fever? Anyone? Anyone? I can't possibly be the only person who knew NOTHING about this disease. I am embarrassed, now that I have read this incredible book, about how little I knew. This fever literally ground life to a halt in parts of our country, over and over again. Her descriptions of life during Yellow Fever epidemics was chilling, disgusting and unsettling. No wonder our government was frantic to figure out what caused it, how it spread, and how to get ri...more

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Feb 27, 2012 Sidna Bookout rated it 5 of 5 stars

One of my book discussion groups is discussing this book this month. I thought the topic was too depressing, and someone in the group mentioned that it contained a lot of boring detail, so I had decided not to read it. The subtitle is "The Untold Story of Yellow Fever, The Epidemic That Shaped Our History." However, one of my friends in the group lent me her copy so I felt obligated to look at it.

When I finally began reading it, I could barely put it down! Parts One and Two, which describe the y...more

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Feb 20, 2011 Jenn rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jul 04, 2010 Blyden rated it 3 of 5 stars

A solid entry in one of my favorite genres, the popularized history. The strength of this book is the historical research that the author has done into the lives of the principals and the fascinating topic of yellow fever. Molly Crosby does a fair job of weaving the history into a engrossing narrative, but isn't quite up to the quality of the masters of the genre. There are moments when the flow falters, places where points are repeated, and the characters never quite come to life, despite the d...more A solid entry in one of my favorite genres, the popularized history. The strength of this book is the historical research that the author has done into the lives of the principals and the fascinating topic of yellow fever. Molly Crosby does a fair job of weaving the history into a engrossing narrative, but isn't quite up to the quality of the masters of the genre. There are moments when the flow falters, places where points are repeated, and the characters never quite come to life, despite the detail and the narrative.

The book is divided into four sections: an introduction, eight chapters on the history of the Memphis 1878 plague, fifteen chapters on efforts, mainly by American and Cuban doctors in Cuba, to isolate the vector(s) by which Yellow Fever is transmitted, and a few chapters on Yellow Fever in modern times.

The key storylines of the Memphis chapters are professional and public debates about the practice of quarantine, a feel for the devastation that Yellow Fever epidemics cause, and the personal heroism of those who cared for the ill. The topic is fascinating, the peculiarities of Memphis and Yellow Fever interesting, but the scenario is not at all unique. A number of other, fictional, accounts have painted the picture for us. Camus' Plague comes to mind most directly.

The unique story here is the Cuba section, which details the history of the Yellow Fever Commission and particularly the efforts of its doctors to determine how Y.F. was spread. Storylines here include insight into the interpersonal and political factors that underlie medical paradigms, a contrast in the ethics of medical experimentation at the end of the 19th century with those of modern medicine, and the personal heroism of those who fought yellow fever in the trenches, figuratively. This is the section that really makes the book worth reading.

Certain conceits of the author are annoying. She titles the book "The" American Plague, and uses the phrase "The Epidemic that Shaped our History" as though this was the only epidemic in US history. Even if, as she argues, Yellow Fever was the most feared disease in the U.S. in the 19th century, it certainly wasn't the only one that reached epidemic proportions nor the only one that significantly impacted our history.

Where is the line between fiction and non-fiction? Shaara's depiction of Gettysburg is very historical, but he created dialogue for the characters, fictionalizing history. It seems to me that even if one doesn't create fictional dialogue, virtually every popularized history is necessarily also fictionalized to a degree because it is inevitable that the author interprets the history in her portrayal and in that interpretation and portrayal will come details that may or may not have had a historical basis. Crosby stresses that The American Plague is a work of non-fiction, as if to say that her work is immune from this issue which characterizes the entire genre. To be sure she has avoided the creation of dialogue, but she does paint settings for us in ways that are unavoidably subjective, she tells us at points how characters feel about their situation and about other characters. No doubt she has bases for doing this in historical documents of her research, but even the act of reporting what is written in a historical document as being necessarily representative of a person's actual feelings is a significant imputation. Of course, any history is subjective, a history as some specific person sees it or chooses to present it, but histories written in the popularized format add content that is subjectively created to give a richer narrative. At what point doing that crosses a boundary into "fictionalized" I suppose is left to the reader, but I don't think any author of history written in this style is a strong position to argue for the non-fiction purity of their work.

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Jan 06, 2010 Steven Peterson rated it 4 of 5 stars

Molly Caldwell Crosby has written a nice medical mystery--the causes and cure for the dread Yellow Fever.

Yellow Fever is a nasty disease, featuring high fever, severe headache, undue sensitivity to light, extreme pain, shutdown of kidneys, abdominal cramps, and so on. And, given the disease's name, (page 2) ". . .the skin grew a deep gold, the whites of the eyes turning brilliant yellow."

Yellow fever began its course in Africa, and was transported to the New World through the slave trade. The...more Molly Caldwell Crosby has written a nice medical mystery--the causes and cure for the dread Yellow Fever.

Yellow Fever is a nasty disease, featuring high fever, severe headache, undue sensitivity to light, extreme pain, shutdown of kidneys, abdominal cramps, and so on. And, given the disease's name, (page 2) ". . .the skin grew a deep gold, the whites of the eyes turning brilliant yellow."

Yellow fever began its course in Africa, and was transported to the New World through the slave trade. The major part of the narrative begins in 1878, with the great breakout of Yellow Fever in Memphis, Tennessee. Crosby notes that (page 13) "By the end of that year, it would suffer losses greater than the Chicago fire, San Francisco earthquake, and Johnstown flood combined." The devastation was great. In July of 1878, the population of the city was around 47,000. By September, 19,000 remained in the city and 17,000 of them had Yellow Fever, if the statistics are to be believed. Chapter 4 aptly describers the situation: "A City of Corpses."

After the epidemic in Memphis, some scientists began to consider what the cause of the disease might be. Carlos Finley argued that mosquitoes were the cause (correctly); however, when he gave his presentation to a learned society, his stuttering etc. undermined his argument. He was labeled (page 85) "Mosquito Man" and a "crank" and a "crazy old man."

The next episode was the Spanish-American War. One byproduct of this was American soldiers in Cuba suffering from Yellow Fever. Dr. Walter Reed was named to head a team to determine causes and how to address the disease. Experimentation on humans (no wonder that we now have guidelines for research on human subjects) led to identification of a particular type of mosquito as the carrier. As time went on, a vaccine was developed. In the process of isolating the cause, however, many died, a number of whom were scientists who allows mosquitoes to bite them. Crosby quotes one doctor later saying that (page 223): "I can think of no other disease that killed so many scientists studying it."

The author concludes the volume by noting some recent outbreaks of Yellow Fever. Does this portend future outbreaks in the United States? Perhaps Crosby is a bit alarmist here. Nonetheless, this is a fine and relatively brief medical detective story, as Walter Reed and others tracked down the cause of this killer disease.
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Jul 21, 2009 Daisy rated it 4 of 5 stars

i like this book but it focuses in just a couple of cases and talks more about the scientist and other people affected with yellow fever more than it does with the symptoms of yellow fever. That would be the only thing i did not really like about it but other than that it talks about how it affected Memphis, Tennessee and Cuba and other areas of the world but those two locations are were most of the story takes place and it talks about the efforts scientist made at the time and how hard it was t...more

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Jun 08, 2009 Chris rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is an excellent story of how the transmition of Yellow Fever by mosquitos was discovered and the physicians who lost their lives proving it. It also sets the stage by telling the tale of the 1878 Yellow Fever Epidemic in Memphis that destroyed the city and all in it. On a side note, it was very entertaining to see Ms. Crosby mention the tropical storm passing over the Island of Cuba that would turn into the great hurricane of 1900 on Galveston Island. As most of my medical education was on...more

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Oct 02, 2012 Delway Burton rated it 4 of 5 stars

A most interesting book which begins with the Yellow Fever epidemic in Memphis in 1878 which killed 5000 people and destroyed the city. Citizens today see the virus of yellow fever as a historic problem but don't be fooled. The virus and the mosquitoes that carry it are still close at hand. Originating in West Africa the vectors came to the Americas with the slave trade and over the next few years claimed hundreds of thousands of victims. The story then follows the time line of the search for it...more

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Dec 08, 2011 MJ rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book had so much potential. I picked it up as a lender from my mom on a lark after reading the introductory chapter and thought it would be really interesting.

And in some ways it was! However, Ms. Crosby's "storyline" jumped around too much, seemingly without any rhyme or reason. Also, I felt that she should have either stuck to the science bits or the history bits, or made the book twice as long.

In some instances, I felt that there should have been more written about Dr. Reed. In others,...more

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Dec 26, 2012 Cara rated it 3 of 5 stars

I love medical histories and who doesn't love a good plague story, so I picked this up expecting a good history of yellow fever in the United States. In that, I was a bit disappointed with this book's scope. It focuses first on the 1878 yellow fever epidemic that more than decimated the population of Memphis, Tennessee. Then it moves to Cuba during the time of the Spanish-American war in 1898 and for the few years after, when Walter Reed and a group of other researchers were trying to discover t...more

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May 14, 2007 Krystal rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: history

Had no idea this had even happened! Interesting to see that people's reactions in the face of fear are still the same: there are some who get out quick, some who take advantage of the situation and some who inspire with acts of bravery that blow my mind. The ending is a little...sensational but overall, an educational book.

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Jan 04, 2012 Gerald rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: genre-history, genre-non-fiction, owned, theme-medicine, theme-plague, timeframe-1800s

As a life-long Memphian, I have heard many stories of devastating effect on the city the 1878 Yellow Fever Epidemic had. More than 2,500 victims are buried in Memphis’ historic Elmwood Cemetery (founded 1852). I attended a reading at Elmwood Cemetery in early 2007 by first-time author Molly Caldwell Crosby from her then new book:

. She did a great job of describing the terrible effect of this horrible disease both in Memphis and elsewhere.

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Apr 05, 2007 Kristen Bauer rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book was an amazing combination of medical facts and narratiev prose. I really got into the story that was basically pulled together from death logs and medical journals. It was amazing to learn about this period of my history that I didn't know existed. Couldn't put it down - fantastic NF writing.

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Apr 28, 2011 Sally rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorite-historical-fiction

So I read this one on accident. I meant to read the American Plague: Story of the 1793 epidemic that hit Philli (I was confused how the one I was reading could be a Newberry Honor, because it was a little higher level reading than most Newberrys, now I know). This one, however, was a well written, researched and documented book on the 1878 epidemic in Memphis, TN and the research that was done in Cuba that helped to lead to control of the disease. Being married to an epidemiologist, I really app...more

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Apr 14, 2013 LibraryCin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history, science, yellow-fever, epidemic, medicine, tennessee, cuba

This book is split into three main parts. In the first part, it takes us through the yellow fever epidemic that hit Memphis, Tennessee in 1878. In the second part, it looks at the doctors who tried to figure out where yellow fever came from and how it spread, including the human volunteer experiments that they performed. In the third part, in current day, what is being done now about yellow fever?

I thought this was very interesting. The first part, in particular, really drew me in, but even the...more

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Jul 07, 2009 Laura rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: everyone

Shelves: public-health

This narrative nonfictional novel follows the disease of yellow fever from its origins in the jungles of West Africa to its arrival and thus adaptation to the US. The effect on US cities, particularly Memphis and New Orleans was incalculable. Crosby is especially good at describing the horrendous conditions of Memphis, or the "city of corpses" as it is referred to. It also chronicles the countless quest of doctors and scientists to find its causes and cures. Specifically that of General Walter R...more

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Dec 11, 2012 Dena Norman rated it 3 of 5 stars

It was interesting, though scattered in its storylines (there were more than necessary). The introduction to the yellow fever plague in Memphis was fascinating as was the middle section in which the Yellow Fever Commission in Cuba crept closer and closer to finding answers. The conclusion, however, seemed a hurried compilation of everything I just read (with added bits of history that I wish the author would have shared more about) and it was truly a waste of words and paper. Repetitive at times...more

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Nov 14, 2011 Shelly rated it 4 of 5 stars

Book #50 for 2011 - I really liked this true story of yellow fever and how it shaped our nation's history. There are many things throughout history which were affected by the yellow fever outbreak in the late 1800s. The nation's capital was moved from Philadelphia to Washington D.C. and the outbreak in Memphis claimed more lives than the Chicago fire, San Francisco earthquake and the Johnstown flood combined (just to name a couple.) The story goes from Memphis to Cuba to Africa which can sometim...more

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Jul 07, 2011 Jessica rated it 3 of 5 stars

Interesting narrative, but the larger context for the book (situating the 1878 outbreak and the study of diseases in the broader context of American history) would be better had the author read more widely before writing/publishing the book (Elizabeth Fenn's Pox Americana, Alfred Crosby's Ecological Imperialism, William McNeill's Plagues and Peoples all come to mind). I'm most interested in knowing if the author is related to Alfred Crosby, because then I would expect her to have written a far b...more

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Jul 28, 2012 Sarah rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: grown-up-books

This is a fascinating story, but very poorly written. And also poorly edited. There are confusing syntactical errors, idioms the author (weirdly) doesn't get quite right, as if she isn't a native English speaker, and the overall tone is maudlin, overwrought, and florid. The story is quite compelling enough without all the self-conscious literary flourishes. If this had been a novel, I would have quit after the first 20 pages. But the history is good, and the information new to me, so I stuck wit...more

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Jul 27, 2012 Barbara rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, medicine

If you're familiar with the now-closed Walter Reed Hospital, but don't know for what the man was famous, this book will answer your questions. In the United States' infancy, yellow fever was feared much as ebola is today, the main difference being that you were more likely to actually contract it. Infected mosquitoes were transported on slave and trade ships from West Africa and Cuba; the US was virgin territory, its inhabitants having never been exposed to the virus or developed any immunity. I...more If you're familiar with the now-closed Walter Reed Hospital, but don't know for what the man was famous, this book will answer your questions. In the United States' infancy, yellow fever was feared much as ebola is today, the main difference being that you were more likely to actually contract it. Infected mosquitoes were transported on slave and trade ships from West Africa and Cuba; the US was virgin territory, its inhabitants having never been exposed to the virus or developed any immunity. It took hold with a vengeance; sometimes boasting a mortality rate as high as 80%, yellow fever epidemics were responsible for the deaths of over 100,000 people during the 17th and 18th centuries.

Walter Reed, along with a team of doctors hand-picked by the Surgeon General, spent months researching the disease in Cuba; his crowning achievement was identifying the striped house mosquito as the vector, a finding received with some skepticism by the medical community. The research carried a high price tag - in an era of limited technology, experimentation on humans was an unfortunate necessity; contracting the disease was the sought-after success, and volunteers knew they could well become martyrs to science. Yellow fever was, and remains, incurable; several members of Reed's team allowed themselves to be bitten by infected mosquitoes; some died, and others were damaged for life.

Eradication of the disease in North America meant eliminating mosquito populations, enforcing stricter quarantines, and passing legislation for the management of standing water. Long after Reed's death, a vaccine was finally developed, earning its creator a Nobel Prize; however, its propensity to cause serious neurological side-effects hindered its acceptance, and today it is only recommended for those traveling to countries in which yellow fever still runs rampant.

The author ends her book on a cautionary note - while yellow fever does not currently pose a threat in the United States, it continues to cause epidemics in Africa and South America. International travel and the resiliency of the virus allow for the possibility of it being transported onto American soil again. Crosby spares no ugly detail in the description of the disease's course, and one can only hope that today's palliative measures would provide both relief and a better prospect for recovery.

Very thoroughly researched and detailed, clearly presented - excellent read.

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Jan 25, 2012 Andrea rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: z2012_read_list, nonfiction, pathology

I took this book on a business trip with me and my coworkers looked at me like I was nuts or possibly an alien. Clearly, none of them were gigantic pathology/epidemiology nerds like me. I can’t give an unbiased review of this book because I was so darned excited to see a highly readable sort of history/medicine/sociology mash up on yellow fever. I’ve seen some reviews that ding this book for being ‘too readable’ (that it tries a little too hard to be likeable and enjoyable). Having read actual m...more

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Mar 18, 2013 Natasha rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, non-fiction, medical

A patchy overview of yellow fever and its effect on history.

I love medical history. Medicine has come so far in such a short amount of time. It's fascinating to learn how people used to deal with diseases and what they thought actually caused some diseases. I might have heard of yellow fever before I read this book, but if I had, I didn't know much about it. The book's title makes some big claims and I was prepared to be impressed. I went into this book thinking it would be close to a definitive...more

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Dec 18, 2011 Adriane rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

So I was extremely disappointed in this book. Now I know they can't all be "The Hot Zone" but I was at least expecting a riveting read, especially since this disease attacked America heavily and has no cure, though they do have a vaccine. Speaking of vaccines I was horrified the other day to read that they discovered a girl who has polio because her idiot parents didn't get her vaccinated. There is a reason that a lot of severe childhood diseases have been wiped out in America and that's because...more

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Feb 18, 2012 Joan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I put this book on my to read list after seeing an interview with the author, where she shared the idea of a narrative nonfiction account of history rather than simply the facts. I have found some other of this genre to be too close to fiction for comfort, but in this case, it seems to work reasonably well - making the history of the yellow fever epidemic of 1878 Memphis (among other locations) and the subsequent public health measure and work to isolate the cause of yellow fever accessible to p...more I put this book on my to read list after seeing an interview with the author, where she shared the idea of a narrative nonfiction account of history rather than simply the facts. I have found some other of this genre to be too close to fiction for comfort, but in this case, it seems to work reasonably well - making the history of the yellow fever epidemic of 1878 Memphis (among other locations) and the subsequent public health measure and work to isolate the cause of yellow fever accessible to people who may not be completely conversant in medical or public health language.

The book is very engaging. Enough background details are provided to provide context to the main plot as well as provide lots of details about the facts AND the book has a pretty good index as well.

I have a couple of minor quibbles. A story of yellow fever will obviously include discussion of case histories that include specific discussions of elevated body temperatures. The author includes only Fahrenheit measurements. Although American audiences will perhaps be more interested than readers outside the US, science writers can help making readers more conversant in the system used by the rest of the world by including at least a conversion chart - but even better - just quote Centigrade.

Another slight irritant is language that suggest that viruses have a 'will' to survive. It makes more more vivid language, but it obscures the fact that viral mutation is not something planned by the viruses, but rather is the result of complex interactions between the host animal, the vector, the environment and the pathogen.

The author talks a bit about some of the ethical issues of clinical trials and introduces the term 'vivisection' as a term to describe the habit of many early investigators to use themselves as participants in clinical trials. The inclusion of new immigrants to Cuba in the yellow fever studies was thoughtfully explained, as Walter Reed, who was one of the investigators, believed that immigrants to Cuba would have the expectation of contracting yellow fever and so participating in the studies did not pose an additional risk. The use of bilingual informed consent forms was reassuring.

These small points aside, the book includes a couple of important topics, including the role of politics in public health as well as in scientific discovery. Some things haven't changed in 100 years. The relationship between the slave trade and yellow fever was interesting as well. Readers of The Great Influenza (John M. Barry) will enjoy this book as well.

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About Molly Caldwell Crosby

Molly Crosby is a best-selling author and journalist. Her first book The American Plague: The Untold Story of Yellow Fever, the Epidemic That Shaped Our History was published in November 2006 by Berkley Books, an imprint of Penguin, USA. The New York Times hailed it as a “first-rate medical detective drama,” and Newsweek called it “gripping.” The book has been nominated for the Barnes & Noble...more

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