The Emergence of Pandemics is Age Old: A Critical Study on Molly Caldwell’s The American Plague: The Untold Story of Yellow-Fever, The Epidemic that Shaped Our History

Abstract

Crosby’s The American Plague highlights the reality of Memphis in the year 1878. It depicts the sufferings of the people of Memphis, as the whole city has affected by the epidemic Yellow fever in the late 19^thcentury. Similar to the situation of Covid 19 in the present, Memphis is quarantined from the rest of the country. The city has become the city of corpses. Crosby too portrays the funeral done at the time of plague. The number of death reported in the city has frightened the people. Throughout the book, Crossby brings the pathetic condition of the city that has transformed into a city of corpses due to yellow fever as today in most of countries the cities transform into the places of corpses due to the present pandemic covid19. While the readers go through literature and history of the past, it can be identified that pandemic is not new, the world has been continuously involved in the encounter of pandemics.