The Barbary Plague: The Black Death in Victorian San Francisco

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.

Author: Marilyn Chase
Publisher: Random House Trade
Published: 03/09/2004
Pages: 304
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.71lbs
Size: 7.90h x 5.30w x 0.60d
ISBN: 9780375757082

Review Citation(s):
New York Times 04/18/2004 pg. 32

About the Author
MARILYN CHASE, a longtime reporter for The Wall Street Journal, covers medical science and health care, currently focusing on infectious-disease outbreaks and bioterrorism. An honors graduate of Stanford University who also holds a master's degree from the University of California at Berkeley, Chase lives with her family in San Francisco.