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Anyone interested in the history of public health... will love this book.
Risse's impressive book provides the most detailed examination of the political, cultural, and medical landscape in which a deadly plague appeared in San Francisco and became associated with Chinese bodies and Chinatown... Risse deserves much credit for adding a great deal of nuance and texture to our historical understanding of plague and politics in early twentieth-century San Francisco.
The author, a well-known historian of medicine long resident in San Francisco, has impeccable credentials to tackle one of the most complex and tortured episodes in the history of American public health. He does not disappoint.
In Plague, Fear, and Politics in San Francisco's Chinatown, Guenter Risse presents a thoroughly researched, nuanced analysis of events surrounding the outbreak of bubonic plague in San Francisco from 1900 to 1904. While much has been written about this epidemic... Risse's book is a significant addition to scholarship in this area. It places the epidemic in a broader context, and it adds a unique perspective that focuses on the effects on the residents of Chinatown of the plague and the public health response to it... This book is more than merely the story of one plague epidemic. It is also a good source for the history of the Chinese immigrant experience in American, early twentieth-century San Francisco politics, and California history... Scholars in variety of disciplines will find much of interest and avenues for further exploration in Risse's important book.
Risse is the first writer to be comprehensive, exploring all facets of the plague, digging into personal accounts, even using the archives of Chinese accounts and Chinese personal letters to tell their side. His treatment is successful.
About
Book Details
Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
6
x 9
Pages
392
ISBN
9781421405100
Illustration Description
18 halftones, 1 line drawing
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I: Before Plague
1. The People of Tang in San Francisco
A Migrant from Taishan
Framing Chinese Space
Lifestyles and Governance
Politics and Violence
2. Guarding Life and the
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I: Before Plague
1. The People of Tang in San Francisco
A Migrant from Taishan
Framing Chinese Space
Lifestyles and Governance
Politics and Violence
2. Guarding Life and the Way of Death
Wong's Illness and Folk Religion
Cultivating Vitality
Shelters and Dispensaries
Corpses and Bones
3. Sanitation, Microbes, and Plague
Issuing Death Certificates
From Miasma to Germs
Sanitation in Chinatown
Third Plague Pandemic
The Final Diagnosis
4. Officials, Mandarins, and the Press
San Francisco and Its Health Officials
The Lords of Chinatown
Partner or Foe? The Governor and the State Health Board
"Warriors of Epidemics": The Marine Hospital Service
"Playing with Ink": Western and Chinese Journalism in San Francisco
Part II: Plague
5. Early Scenes of Terror: March–June 1900
Roping Chinatown: First Plague Diagnosis and Quarantine
New Deaths: Searches, Vaccinations, and Fear of Detention
"Wolf Doctors" Hunt for Plague
Turmoil: Another Quarantine and a Federal Lawsuit
6. The Siege Continues: June–December 1900
Federal Quarantine of California: A Political Blunder
Valuable Real Estate: Planning Chinatown's Removal
Plague Diagnoses: A Quarrel between Experts
Tarnished Image: Plague, Boxers, and Reformers
7. Plague Goes Undergroun: 1901
Expert Opinion: Adventures of a Federal Commission
Persona Non Grata: The Ouster of Kinyoun
Odd Bedfellows: The Federal, State, and City Cleanup
Hide and Seek: Tracking Sick and Dead Chinese Residents
8. Rumors and Realities: 1902
San Francisco Stand-off: Mayor versus Health Board
No Plague: "Ostrich" Policies under Fire
Federal Officials Target People and Rats
"Beating the Tiger": A Mandarin's Downfall
9. National Threat: 1903
Is San Francisco Infected? Health Conferences and Railroads
Leaders under Pressure: A Shift in Health Policies
Real Estate and the Plan to Raze Chinatown
Chinese Cooperation: Joint Sanitary Inspections
10. Sanitarians Claim Victory: 1904-1905
Puppet Show: San Francisco's New Health Board
Dawn of a Public Health Fraternity
Targeting Rats: Poisons and Demolitions
The Oriental City Project
Pyrrhic Victory
Epilogue
Appendix: San Francisco Plague Cases
Notes
Index
Featured Contributor
Guenter B. Risse
A physician and historian, Guenter B. Risse is professor emeritus of the history of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and an affiliate professor at the University of Washington, Seattle. His previous books include Hospital Life in Enlightenment Scotland and Mending Bodies, Saving Souls: A History of Hospitals.Resources
