Editorial Review:

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.

Customer Reviews:

Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0

Good Bio!:

This is a very interesting true scientific mystery and good bio on Walter Reed.

First-time writer needs to learn to trust her sources and turn down the purple prose:

This is prose by which the adjective "purple" is defined. Turns out Molly has a degree, a Masters degree, from Johns Hopkins, mind you, in non-fiction writing, where apparently they teach such. Or perhaps Mrs.. Crosby added them all on her own.
Well, this is hardly an untold story, as Crosby references many secondary sources about plagues, yellow fever, American yellow fever attacks and research, and the Memphis epidemic itself. To be fair, Crosby does mine a goodly number of primary sources to tell... more info

things you never knew...and never thought were related to yellow fever:

This book presents an overview of the (still unfinished) fight against yellow fever from the time it was a mysterious, dreaded illness until the present - when we know more about it, but the disease remains incurable. The author does an excellent job of pulling together seemingly disparate information and showing how it all coalesces to form the pattern of the disease. Even though the reader may know that the disease is spread by mosquitoes, the scientific search for that breakthrough information is... more info

Nice narrative:

Thank you Crosby for writing this amazing piece about how an infectious disease has shaped our history.
Crosby's writing made me feel like I was there in every scene. She emphasized the heroic acts of people who volunteered to help combat yellow fever. I cried a few times during the book too because I became attached to some of the heroes.
Crosby's organization of the book was wonderful and she had great word use. I have had to look up plenty of words! Haha.
I'm touched by this book. If... more info

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