The Barbary Plague: The Black Death in Victorian San Francisco
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Manufacturer: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Written By: Marilyn Chase
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 616.1
EAN: 9780375757082
ISBN: 0375757082
Label: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Manufacturer: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 304
Publication Date: 2004-03-09
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Release Date: 2004-03-09
Studio: Random House Trade Paperbacks
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Editorial Reviews for The Barbary Plague: The Black Death in Victorian San Francisco
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The veteran Wall Street Journal science reporter Marilyn Chase’s fascinating account of an outbreak of bubonic plague in late Victorian San Francisco is a real-life thriller that resonates in today’s headlines. The Barbary Plague transports us to the Gold Rush boomtown in 1900, at the end of the city’s Gilded Age. With a deep understanding of the effects on public health of politics, race, and geography, Chase shows how one city triumphed over perhaps the most frightening and deadly of all scourges.
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Consumer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: A pleasant surprise
Comment: Based on the title I would not have picked this book, but it was chosen by my book club. What a pleasure to read. Well written and one of the best overviews of what San Francisco was like at the turn of the century including during the 1906 earthquake. All of the members of the book club enjoyed this book and many have recommended it to friends.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating, fun, and a quick read despite flowery language
Comment: If I thought too much about the language, I tended to think "who was this person's editor, and what were they drinking?" But despite the intermittent distraction, I found it fascinating. The author tells a real non-fiction story - and it measures up to a good fiction read. I'm from San Francisco, so I had an added interest in the location if not the topic, but, come on, who isn't fascinated by The Plague? The author jumped around in time in a way that had no rhyme or reason for me, but again, I wasn't more than temporarily distracted by this. Worth the time.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Gripping and Timely
Comment: Ms. Chase has mixed a veritable cauldron of explosive subjects about which to write something fresh: politics and race in turn-of-the-century San Francisco, the just emerging discoveries about plague vectors, topped off with brand new research into the characters who stood at the center of an outbreak of plague in San Francisco's Chinatown. She recounts how the early cases were misdiagnosed or dismissed in order to prevent damage to the city's reputation, and while the descriptions of individual cases is by its nature repetitive, the story is made all the more powerful as the epidemic's toll mounts and, finally, subsides. Ms. Chase describes the anti-rat campaign and its role in beating the plague, and pinpoints the seemingly minor difference in flea types that saved us from a much worse outbreak. Ms. Chase scrupulously avoided the easy paths to sensationalism and chose to stick to the facts. For instance, she makes the point that it was evident that the number of plague victims was being undercounted due to sufferers (or bodies) being removed from the city, possibly in collusion with authorities, but steadfastly sticks only to the proven cases in proving the existence of an "epidemic". The epidemic may have been far worse than recorded. And coming just as we were avoiding travel to certain destinations because of SARS, her book is an outstanding reminder of the responsibility of public health authorities to place the public good above all else in matters of infectious disease. If you are interested in the early days of public health in the United States, or wish to draw lessons for the present, this book is a must read!
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Black Death in Early San Francisco
Comment: This book is not only a fascinating look into the origins of the bubonic plauge in early San Francisco, tracing the disease's trek from China through Hong Kong to Chinatown in Honolulu and spreading itself in the western frontier of California; it is a view of how racism and politics affected interfered with solution. When plague first appeared in San Francisco, it struck the Chinatown area the hardest, inflaming tensions between the whites and the immigrants. When Dr. Joseph Kinyoun threatened quaratine of the entire area, the businessmen and politicians rose against him, putting the city' s profitability before the public's health. His replacement, Rupert Blue, managed the plague clean-up campaign with much diplomacy and brought about sweeping changes that not only curbed the rise of the plague, but also enhanced the city's image.This book has it all -- poitical intrigue, racism, a disease out of control, heroes and villains. Sometimes non-fiction can be better than most novels, and in this case, it makes for a great book well worth reading.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Sherlock Holmes in San Francisco
Comment: A medical history that rivals whodunnits as a page-turner. For all its scrupulous research and shocking parallels to our own day, it generates an excitement that many novelists would envy. The colorful characters - greedy businessmen, dishonest politicians, a timid medical establishment, an heroic doctor - live with growing danger from disease, earthquake, fire and even from city officials intent on a coverup. As a bonus, one reads a fascinating history of San Francisco at the turn of the 20th century.
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More Information on The Barbary Plague: The Black Death in Victorian San Francisco
Powell's Books - The Barbary Plague: The Black Death in Victorian San ...
Includes bibliographical references (p. [257]-262) and index.... ... The Australia sailed into, the port of San Francisco on the day after New Year's, 1900.
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Buy 'The Barbary Plague: The Black Death in Victorian San Francisco' by Marilyn Chase. Plague Journal Marilyn Chase's 'Barbary Plague' chronicles a health scare with modern echoes
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The Barbary Plague The Black Death in Victorian San Francisco Written by Marilyn Chase Format: Trade Paperback, 304 pages Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
The Barbary Plague: The Black Death in Victorian San Francisco ...
American Journal of Epidemiology 2005 161(3):299-301; doi:10.1093/aje/kwi032
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Details for The Barbary plague : the Black Death in Victorian San Francisco
Powell's Books - The Barbary Plague: The Black Death in Victorian San ...
The veteran Wall Street Journal science reporter Marilyn Chase’s fascinating account of an outbreak of bubonic plague in late Victorian San Francisco is a real-life thriller that ...
NEJM -- Table of Contents (September 11 2003, 349 [11])
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Publisher description for The Barbary plague : the Black Death in Victorian San Francisco / Marilyn Chase.
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Retrieved on 2007-08-13. ^ Chase, Marilyn (2003). The Barbary Plague: The Black Death in Victorian San Francisco. Random House. ISBN 0375504966. Â ^ Echenberg, Myron. Plague Ports: