Rating: 
Summary: Sherlock Holmes in San Francisco
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Sherlock Holmes in San Francisco
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Highly recommended reading.
Review: A thrilling drama rich with the textures and flavors of young San Francisco before, during and after the Great Quake and Fire of 1906. It is also a cautionary tale for this era of Aids, SARS, and threats of microbial warfare. Beautifully written, this is an intimate portrait of heroes and scoundrels, of those who doggedly battled against the plague and of those whose bigotry, political ambition and greed blocked the way. It is a thoroughly researched story of a very close call and a not-quite-complete victory over an enemy that still haunts us today. This book is hard to put down and its imagery lingers long after.
Rating: 
Summary: Dont waste your time on this one
Review: An obviously pro-chinese American guilt complexed attempt to rewrite the truth (history) about the poor sanitation of the period's Chinese people. Its not a coincidence that plague broke out in Canton, Honolulu China-town and then San Francisco China-town. These places were rat infested, feces covered, disease breeding grounds. Its sad that so many people feel the need to interpret the past with the politically correct view of the present. Lets leave the truth alone no matter how ugly it is and in that way learn from it instead of what this book attempted to do. I'm sorry I bought it.
Rating:
Summary: A cautionary tale
Review: How many readers (let along how many residents of the Bay Area in California) know that The Black Death once reached epidemic proportions in San Francisco? I sure didn't.
Beginning in 1900, it erupted off and on for the next 5 yrs before public health officials finally brought it under control.
But in this very well-written and extremely well-researched 'docu-drama,' Marilyn Chase outlines how the politics of denial on many levels prevented the earlier curtailment of the outbreak. Chase, the author, puts a face on those who were involved in the cover-up, as well as those who bucked the anti-Chinese tide of the era and finally halted the spread of the disease.
The Barbary Plague launches epidemiology onto the best seller lists.
Rating: 
Summary: Somewhat repetitive medical history.
Review: I was raised in Contra Costa County to the east of San Francisco. And of course, we went through state history while in grade school. But not once were we told about the Plague, though we heard plenty about the earthquake and the San Andreas faultline. It came as a complete surprise to me that SF had experienced one more trauma during that decade from 1900-1910...they did not just experience the plague once, but rather a series of them. I guess with all the shipping that SF used to be known for, much of it coming from the Orient, it should not have been so unusual. Much of the area that this happened in has changed drastically over the years, including Chinatown, but I still remember going to Chinatown in the 1960s and seeing butcher shops with dead ducks hanging in the windows. Most cities had problems with rats. If they thought SF was bad, I hate to think what Chicago was like with that city being the major one for slaughterhouses throughout the U.S., and of course, NY with all the shipping from around the world. What made SF unique is that it was relatively smaller to both NY and Chicago, and considered a clean city. I guess even after 60 years, the area was still embarrassed by their run-in with the plague and that's why we didn't get that information in school. I love medical history, and we have several very good authors out there, with the late Roy Porter and Laurie Garret being a couple of favorites. Chase's book was alright, but did not have the writing ability of the above authors, and the book seemed dry, and very repititious at times. She obviously did her research, to the point of having the names of so many of the Chinese who died in the first wave of plague. The book just lack the feeling of urgency conveyed by other authors when dealing with epidemics. It was a good enough book, and maybe as Chase writes more books, she'll learn to not to write as a reporter (which she is) and to develop the ability to make history of any kind exciting without having to 'make up' historical facts. Probably the best part of the book was the political and racial biases against the Chinese (again). I felt bad for their continued fight against prejudices, when they had done so much to build the West. Karen Sadler.
Science Education,
University of Pittsburgh
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating, fun, and a quick read despite flowery language
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating, fun, and a quick read despite flowery language
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: The Plague Comes to America
Review: If you know anything about medieval history, you know about the Black Death, the mysterious plague that killed off a third of the population of Europe. It may be surprising to learn that bubonic plague has made its mark on modern America. In 1900 in San Francisco's Chinatown, Wong Chut King died of a precipitous and horrifying illness, starting with a rush of fever and chills, continuing to agonizing back pains, painful lumps in the groin and armpits, bleeding, coma, and ending in death. It seemed to be the plague, and it seemed to city government the worst possible news, not because a resident of Chinatown had died, but because it meant bad economic prospects if the cause of death was found out. The amazing story of the arrival of bubonic plague in America and the difficulties involved in its eventual control is told in _The Barbary Plague: The Black Death in Victorian San Francisco_ (Random House) by Marilyn Chase. It is a surprisingly exciting tale, with lessons for our own century. The thousands of citizens of Chinatown were worried that discovery of the plague in their midst would only increase the considerable discrimination against them. They were right; the city quarantined Chinatown, eventually with barbed wire, arbitrarily zigzagged to exclude white stores and churches. Joseph Kinyoun, the federal medical officer for the city, tried to impose the quarantine and force vaccines, but Chinese community groups were able to have them struck down as racially discriminatory. Kinyoun was opposed by civic leaders fearing an economic impact if the plague became well known, and was eventually run out of town. His successor, Rupert Blue, had a little more effect, with some control of the plague before 1906, but then came the earthquake. It shook thousands of rats from their dens, rats which flourished in the broken sewer systems and the mounting garbage, and which successfully colonized the refugee camps. It was after the earthquake that Blue was at his most active, mercilessly driving his team of doctors, diggers and rat-catchers. He replaced wooden structures with concrete ones. He put a bounty on rats, ten cents apiece (afterwards twenty-five), and used tons of cheese every month in traps. He knew rats became disinterested in boring bait, so he included the cheese in Welsh rabbit lures, and gave them rye sandwiches with bacon. He enlisted women's organizations in lessons of housecleaning with city-cleaning in mind. The author is a San Francisco science reporter for the _Wall Street Journal_, and knows the city's history and attitudes well. She has managed close-up views of Chinatown, the rats' importation by steamship from the infected port of Honolulu, and the rattery where rat autopsies and flea combings were done. There are lessons here for the next inevitable scourge. Racializing the disease and scapegoating its victims was a complete failure. The wide broadcast of scientific knowledge is our greatest epidemiological weapon. Unbiased reporting of facts without unnecessary terror but with necessary alarm enlists the aid of the public. It is probably not a coincidence that when hit with another plague almost a century later, when AIDS struck, San Francisco was, compared to the rest of the country, unafflicted with denial or discrimination, and gave swift and compassionate care.
Rating:
Summary: The Plague Comes to America
Review: If you know anything about medieval history, you know about the Black Death, the mysterious plague that killed off a third of the population of Europe. It may be surprising to learn that bubonic plague has made its mark on modern America. In 1900 in San Francisco's Chinatown, Wong Chut King died of a precipitous and horrifying illness, starting with a rush of fever and chills, continuing to agonizing back pains, painful lumps in the groin and armpits, bleeding, coma, and ending in death. It seemed to be the plague, and it seemed to city government the worst possible news, not because a resident of Chinatown had died, but because it meant bad economic prospects if the cause of death was found out. The amazing story of the arrival of bubonic plague in America and the difficulties involved in its eventual control is told in _The Barbary Plague: The Black Death in Victorian San Francisco_ (Random House) by Marilyn Chase. It is a surprisingly exciting tale, with lessons for our own century. The thousands of citizens of Chinatown were worried that discovery of the plague in their midst would only increase the considerable discrimination against them. They were right; the city quarantined Chinatown, eventually with barbed wire, arbitrarily zigzagged to exclude white stores and churches. Joseph Kinyoun, the federal medical officer for the city, tried to impose the quarantine and force vaccines, but Chinese community groups were able to have them struck down as racially discriminatory. Kinyoun was opposed by civic leaders fearing an economic impact if the plague became well known, and was eventually run out of town. His successor, Rupert Blue, had a little more effect, with some control of the plague before 1906, but then came the earthquake. It shook thousands of rats from their dens, rats which flourished in the broken sewer systems and the mounting garbage, and which successfully colonized the refugee camps. It was after the earthquake that Blue was at his most active, mercilessly driving his team of doctors, diggers and rat-catchers. He replaced wooden structures with concrete ones. He put a bounty on rats, ten cents apiece (afterwards twenty-five), and used tons of cheese every month in traps. He knew rats became disinterested in boring bait, so he included the cheese in Welsh rabbit lures, and gave them rye sandwiches with bacon. He enlisted women's organizations in lessons of housecleaning with city-cleaning in mind. The author is a San Francisco science reporter for the _Wall Street Journal_, and knows the city's history and attitudes well. She has managed close-up views of Chinatown, the rats' importation by steamship from the infected port of Honolulu, and the rattery where rat autopsies and flea combings were done. There are lessons here for the next inevitable scourge. Racializing the disease and scapegoating its victims was a complete failure. The wide broadcast of scientific knowledge is our greatest epidemiological weapon. Unbiased reporting of facts without unnecessary terror but with necessary alarm enlists the aid of the public. It is probably not a coincidence that when hit with another plague almost a century later, when AIDS struck, San Francisco was, compared to the rest of the country, unafflicted with denial or discrimination, and gave swift and compassionate care.
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