Available:*
Library | Material Type | Shelf Number | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
Searching... Main Library | Book | 614.54 MURPHY | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... West End | Book | 614.54 MURPHY | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
Powerful and riveting, this Newbery Honor-winning narrative describes the illness known as yellow fever, the toll it took on the nation's capital--and the eventual triumph over the disease.
Long before Covid and the West Nile virus, yellow fever was a medical mystery that forced thousands in Philadelphia, the nation's temporary capital, to flee and brought the workings of the federal government to a virtual halt. A riveting account of this country's first large-scale medical epidemic, An American Plague is generously illustrated with archival prints and photographs and includes a bibliography, map, and index.
This is the story of how half the city's residents fled and half of those who remained died; neighboring towns, cities and states barricaded themselves; George Washington himself fled, setting off a constitutional crisis; and bloodletting caused blood to run through the streets. It is also the story of a little known chapter in Black history in which free Blacks nursed the sick only to be later condemned for their heroic efforts.
Meticulously researched, first-hand accounts, newspaper clippings, death lists, and period engravings recreate the fear and panic while exploring the political, social, cultural, medical and scientific history of the times. A final chapter explores the causes of the epidemic and provides a wake-up call about the potential for epidemics today.
Newbery Honor Book * National Book Award Finalist * Winner of the Sibert Medal
Reviews (2)
Horn Book Review
(Middle School) With his customary care, Murphy culls from a number of historical records the story of the yellow fever epidemic that swept Philadelphia in 1793, skillfully drawing out from these sources the fear and drama of the time and making them immediate to modern readers. Quoting diverse voices, from private diaries to published accounts, Murphy fills in the picture of a devastated town, including the spectacle of whole families dying unattended, the breakdown of civil society, the bitter controversy over treatment, the heroic services of the Free African Society, and the restoration of order as Mayor Clarkson's citizen-committee rose to the challenge. There was a constitutional crisis when Congress was unable to meet in Philadelphia and George Washington couldn't legally convene it elsewhere. Everywhere, Murphy is attentive to telling detail; he offers representative images in the illustrations, from black-and-white portraits of figures in the narrative to plague scenes themselves, often taken from (clearly labeled) European settings when the visual record didn't exist for Philadelphia. The chapters open with facsimiles of newspaper pages and lists of the dead, actual notices and announcements made during the plague. Thoroughly documented, with an annotated source list, the work is both rigorous and inviting. A final chapter answers questions readers may have about ""what happened next""--including how science subdued the threat and how the genie might yet get back out of the bottle. Index not seen. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
A mesmerizing, macabre account that will make readers happy they live in the 21st century. The yellow fever epidemic of 1793 snuck up on the people of Philadelphia during the hot summer; by the end of the year, some 10 percent of the city's population lay dead. Drawing heavily on primary sources, Murphy (Inside the Alamo, p. 393, etc.) takes readers through the epidemic, moving methodically from its detection by the medical community; through its symptoms, treatment, and mortality; its effects on the populace, and what Philadelphia did to counter it. Individual chapters recount the efforts of the heroes of the epidemic: the quasi-legal committee of 12 who took over the running of the city government; the country's preeminent physician, Dr. Benjamin Rush; and the Free African Society, whose members toiled valiantly to ease the victims' pain and to dispose of the dead. Powerful, evocative prose carries along the compelling subject matter. Even as the narrative places readers in the moment with quotations, the design aids and abets this, beginning each chapter with reproductions from contemporary newspapers and other materials, as well as placing period illustrations appropriately throughout the text. The account of Philadelphia's recovery wraps up with a fascinating discussion of historiography, detailing the war of words between Matthew Carey, one of the committee of 12, and Absalom Jones and Richard Allen, the leaders of the Free African Society--interesting in itself, it is also a valuable lesson in reading and writing history. Stellar. (bibliography, illustration credits, index) (Nonfiction. 10+) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
