- ホーム
- > 洋書
- > 英文書
- > History / World
Full Description
In January 1885, as the people of Montreal celebrated one of the greatest winter carnivals of the century, a deadly epidemic inched its way through the city streets. When the case of a railway porter suffering from smallpox was gravely mishandled, what followed was a "carnival of death" causing the preventable demise of over 3,000 Montrealers.
In Plague, historian Michael Bliss uncovers one of the most remarkable untold stories in Canadian history. Crafted through thorough and comprehensive research, Bliss recounts this tale of carnage and humanity in an engaging and vividly detailed format. Now updated with a foreword by infectious diseases expert Gerald A. Evans, this new edition of Plague puts forth an unflinching portrayal of the city of Montreal featuring quack doctors, French-Canadian strongmen, black-robed priests, crusading journalists, Louis Riel, and more.
Bliss depicts how every single death could have been avoided through vaccination even as the epidemic turned people against each other. The book shows how troops had to be called upon to guard smallpox hospitals against anti-vaccination rioters. In an uncanny mirroring of modern day, the whole city of Montreal was quarantined by the rest of North America as a charnel house of disease and death.
Bliss paints a picture of a Montreal routed by divisions and brought to its knees by an epidemic. By bringing to life the last epidemic of smallpox to devastate a city in the Western world, he writes a stark history of life, living, and the human condition. This book is a thriller, a horror story, and a parable about the infectious diseases that have shocked our times.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Foreword
Gerald A. Evans
PART I
Chapter One: The Ice Season
Chapter Two: The Dread Disease
Chapter Three: Two Wars
Chapter Four: Rites of Summer
PART II
Chapter Five: "A State of Plague"
Chapter Six: The Wages of Sin
Chapter Seven: Heart of Darkness
Chapter Eight: East End Rebellion
PARTIII
Chapter Nine: Carnival of Death
Chapter Ten: God's Judgments
Chapter Eleven: The Month of the Dead
Chapter Twelve: And Winter Came
Epilogue
Appendix: The Death Count
Endnotes
Sources
Index