Driven by fear
Subtitle: epidemics and isolation in San Francisco's house of pestilence
By: Guenter B. Risse
Series: History of emotions; History of emotions
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 298
ISBN-13: 9780252039843; 9780252081385
Subjects: Health and hygiene; Chinese; Epidemics; Quarantine; Prejudices; Minorities; Social aspects; Plague; Communicable diseases; History
Description: From the late nenteenth century until the 1920s, authorities required San Francisco's Pesthouse to segregate the diseased from the rest of the city. Guenter B. Risse places this forgotten institution within an emotional climate dominated by widespread dread and disgust. Driven by Fear analyzes the stigma generated by emotional states like xenophobia and racism when combined with competing medical paradigms and the economic needs the encouraged authorities to protect San Francisco's reputation as a haven of health restoration. Risse delves into the spectrum of emotions that drove extreme measures like segregation and isolation and fed urges to scapegoat and stereotype victims -- particularly Chinese victims - of smallpox, leprosy, plague, and syphilis.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Domains of contagion and confinement; title: Framing "loathsome" diseases; title: Tides of inertia and neglect; title: Location : not in my backyard; title: Banished : sojourns of the damned; title: Belle of California's Molokai; title: Wary minders : custodians and caregivers; title: Hope for cures : nature or science; title: Modern isolation : humanizing castaways; title: Epilogue.