Summary Of An American Plague: The Disease That Shaped Our History

Philadelphia is a place of prosper and growth. A figurehead for American expansion and home of the famous Liberty Bell. However, in 1793 it was an incredibly different story, the city was wrought with sickness. Molly Caldwell’s book An American Plague: The Untold Story of Yellow Fever, the Disease that Shaped Our History highlights that devastating time in which Yellow Fever reigned over women, men, and children alike. A truly morbid and dark time in American history. The majority of the first part of the book described the background of the Yellow Fever Epidemic. The first known case was a young French soldier, whose name has faded from the frames of time, in an American boarding house in Philadelphia. His death was of little note at first, it wasn’t until a few other inhabitants of the boarding house experienced the same symptoms did anyone make the connections. Doctors began noticing an influx of patients, all with the same complaints, Doctor Benjamin Rush told other doctors of his theory of the disease being Yellow Fever and they agreed. With this information they began thinking of origins and eventually blamed it on cargo dumped on the local wharf. Although it is incredibly wrong, it was all that could be said due to medical research at the time. The middle of the book mentioned Yellow Fever at its height. Soon, patient after …show more content…
The syntax was poor and filled with incredible amounts of figurative language that took away from the scientific and historical aspect of the book. It was over dramatic and didn’t go into detail of the science behind the epidemic rather highlighting the social aspect of it. Her writing is confusing and very elementary. However, it made me realize a large piece of our past as Americans and made me glad not to be born in the 1700s. This book had great potential but failed to properly land, despite this, I enjoyed the book even if it left me yearning for