Plague Ports : : The Global Urban Impact of Bubonic Plague, 1894-1901 / / Myron Echenberg.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter New York University Press Backlist eBook-Package 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Echenberg, Myron,
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : New York University Press, , [2007]; ©2007
• Year of Publication: 2007
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource

Reveals the global effects of the bubonic plague, and what we can learn from this earlier pandemicA century ago, the third bubonic plague swept the globe, taking more than 15 million lives. Plague Ports tells the story of ten cities on five continents that were ravaged by the epidemic in its initial years: Hong Kong and Bombay, the Asian emporiums of the British Empire where the epidemic first surfaced; Sydney, Honolulu and San Francisco, three “pearls” of the Pacific; Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro in South America; Alexandria and Cape Town in Africa; and Oporto in Europe.Myron Echenberg examines plague's impact in each of these cities, on the politicians, the medical and public health authorities, and especially on the citizenry, many of whom were recent migrants crammed into grim living spaces. He looks at how different cultures sought to cope with the challenge of deadly epidemic disease, and explains the political, racial, and medical ineptitudes and ignorance that allowed the plague to flourish. The forces of globalization and industrialization, Echenberg argues, had so increased the transmission of microorganisms that infectious disease pandemics were likely, if not inevitable.This fascinating, expansive history, enlivened by harrowing photographs and maps of each city, sheds light on urbanism and modernity at the turn of the century, as well as on glaring public health inequalities. With the recent outbreak of COVID-19, and ongoing fears of bioterrorism, Plague Ports offers a necessary and timely historical lesson.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Preface -- Illustrations -- part 1. Belle Époque and Bubonic Plague¹ -- part 2. Asian Beginnings -- 1. An Unexampled Calamity -- 2. City of the Plague -- part 3. Plague at the Doors of Europe -- 3. The Plague Has at Last Arrived -- 4. They Have a Love of Clean Underlinen and of Fresh Air -- part 4. South American Settings -- 5. A Bubonic Plague Epidemic Does Not Exist in This Country Buenos Aires, 1900 -- 6. The Victory of Hygiene, Good Taste, and Art -- part 5. Plague under the Stars and Stripes -- 7. Plague in Paradise -- 8. Black Plague Creeps into America -- part 6. Plague under the Union Jack -- 9. The Inhabitants of Sydney No More Go Barefoot Than Do the Inhabitants of London -- 10. It Is a Miracle We Are Not Visited by a Black Plague -- part 7. Plague’s Lessons -- Appendix -- Notes -- Index -- About the Author