Fever Season: The Story of a Terrifying Epidemic and the People Who Saved a City
Journalist-historian Keith’s account of the yellow-fever epidemic that raced through Memphis, Tennessee, in 1879 ably portrays both the honors and the dishonors earned during that terrifying three-month period as the illness hit two-thirds of the Memphis population, killing more than one-fourth (more than 5,000). Using the prisms of time and firsthand accounts, she lays bare many of the systemic problems—politics, racism, greed, and lingering Civil War resentment—that failed to protect the health and safety of all Memphians. A good place to conduct business, the city proved a poor place to live. As in any crisis, there were many unsung and unexpected heroes as well as a number of ignoble cowards who abandoned civic posts, religious congregations, and even their own families to save themselves. Sadly, though it is true that many lessons were learned and ultimately Memphis became a far better place to live, recent global crises elsewhere have demonstrated that some lessons never sink in. --Donna Chavez