An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Murphy, Jim. 2003. AN AMERICAN PLAGUE: THE TRUE AND TERRIFYING STORY OF THE YELLOW FEVER EPIDEMIC OF 1793. New York; Clarion Books. ISBN 0395776082.

PLOT SUMMARY

In August of 1793 a disease starts sickening and killing the people from Philadelphia.  Doctors do not know exactly what it is.  Whatever it is, it is contagious and killing at a fast pace.  People, including government workers, scared of getting sick, try to escape the vicious-killer disease by fleeing the city. There is conflict among doctors as what is the best way to treat it. 

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Murphy thorough extensive research has done a well job of showing readers what people in Philadelphia went through during this epidemic.  Not only has he gathered information, but he has inserted people’s firsthand accounts, which he gathered through personal journals and letters to loved ones.  This gives the reader the opportunity to understand the fears that people such as the doctors, government officials and citizens of Philadelphia were going through.  With the use of illustrations, Murphy shows the way Philadelphia was before, during, and after the plague.  In some instances, he used illustrations from other places that were affected by some type of plague, such as England, to show similarities of the events in Philadelphia such as the use of mass graves.  At the beginning of the majority of the chapters, Murphy included a page from The Federal Gazette, one of Philadelphia’s newspapers, which informed the citizens of what was going on such as listing the people that succumbed to the disease, new treatments from doctors as well as preventive measures against yellow fever.  Since the book is organized in sequence, using dates to show the progression of events, I would recommend reading the book from the beginning.

REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

Sibert Medal Award 2004

Newberry Honor Book 2004

National Book Award Finalist 2003

KIRKUS review: “A mesmerizing, macabre account that will make readers happy they live in the 21^st century.”

From the Robert F. Sibert Committee Chair Cathryn M. Mercier: “A consummate craftsman, Murphy vividly recreates the fear and panic that swept through Philadelphia in 1793.  Carefully designed and documented, this book models the best in informational books for young books.”

CONNECTIONS

Read other books on Science/Health by Jim Murphy such as:

Invincible Microbe: Tuberculosis and the Never-Ending Search for a Cure. ISBN 9780618535743.

Breakthrough! How Three People Saved “Blue Babies” and Changed Medicine Forever. ISBN 9780547821832.

Have students complete a “did you know?” bulletin board or display on yellow fever.