Library Guides: Anthro 3560W: Plagues and Peoples: Plagues in History

Mara's Book Nook

Mara's favorite plague-related reads.

Pox Americana by Elizabeth A. Fenn
Call Number: RC183.49.F46 2001
ISBN: 9780809078202
Publication Date: 2001-10-20
The astonishing, hitherto unknown truths about a disease that transformed the United States at its birth . A horrifying epidemic of smallpox was sweeping across the Americas when the War of Independence began, and yet we know almost nothing about it.
Typhoid Mary by Judith W. Leavitt
Call Number: RA644.T8 L43 1996
ISBN: 9780807021026
Publication Date: 1996-07-01
Mary Mallon was the first healthy carrier of typhoid to be carefully traced in North America, but there were other healthy carriers - over 400 in New York City alone by the 1930s - whose treatment was much less harsh. Why did Mallon's case turn out as it did?
The Great Influenza by John M. Barry
Call Number: MU Online
ISBN: 9781101200971
Publication Date: 2005-10-04
At the height of World War I, history's most lethal influenza virus erupted in an army camp in Kansas, moved east with American troops, then exploded, killing as many as 100 million people worldwide.
Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks
Call Number: MED WC 355 .B873y 2002
ISBN: 9780142001431
Publication Date: 2002-04-30
Historical Fiction
When an infected bolt of cloth carries plague from London to an isolated village, a housemaid named Anna Frith emerges as an unlikely heroine and healer. Through Anna's eyes we follow the story of the fateful year of 1666, as she and her fellow villagers confront the spread of disease and superstition.

Databases for Primary Historical Sources

HeinOnline Past Pandemics Collection
An excellent full-text database for discovering how various U.S. jurisdictions and levels of government have dealt with past disease outbreaks.

Human Relations Area File
Ethnographic accounts and histories of peoples throughout the world. May contain information on how different peoples deal with particular diseases, and more, how they understand and cope with disease in general.
Date Coverage: 1940-date
Maximum Users: Unlimited
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Help: https://hraf-yale-edu.proxy.mul.missouri.edu/help/
American Periodicals
A full-text collection resources that chronicle the development of America across 150 years that include digitized images of the pages of magazines and journals.
Date Coverage: 1741 - 1900

Maximum Users: Unlimited

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JSTOR
Contains full text of a set of scholarly journals going back to their first issues, often in the 19th century. Good place to search for disease-related articles in a few medical and a few more general-science or general-knowledge scholarly journals. Does NOT contain most recent years of journals.
Free account can be created for personalization.
Date Coverage: Varies by title
Maximum Users: Unlimited
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Search Guide: https://support.jstor.org/hc/en-us/articles/115004701828-Search-Help-Resources-Overview
ProQuest Historical Newspapers
Searchable full-image of the Chicago Defender (1909-2010), Chicago Tribune (1849-1999), Los Angeles Times (1881-2000), St. Louis Post-Dispatch (1874-2003), New York Times (1851-2020), Wall Street Journal (1889-2012), Washington Post (1877-2007), Kansas City Call (1919-2010), Pittsburgh Courier (1911-2010), and the St. Louis American (1949-2010).
Early American Imprints Series I Evans (1639-1800)
Contains searchable PDF's of materials published in Colonial America and the early U.S. such as books, pamphlets, and broadsides. The collection may be browsed by topic (e.g., Genre: Songs, Economics: Liquor Traffic, History: Louisiana Purchase,etc.)
Date Coverage: 1639-1800

Maximum Users: Unlimited

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