Demons of Illness and Poverty Stalking the Lucky Gods, by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, 1884. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Herbert R. Cole Collection.

Epidemic

Volume XIII, Number 3 | summer 2020

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Preamble

Signs and Wonders

By Francine Prose

Reading the literature of past plagues and suddenly seeing our present reflected in a mirror.

Illustrations from a 1906 French translation of H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds by Henrique Alvim Corrêa.

Essay

The Virus and the Martians

By Mike Jay

In H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds, an all-conquering civilization had no defense against a humble microbe.

Map

The Name Blame Game

A history of inflammatory illness epithets.

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Miscellany

Originally known as Yellow Hook, after the color of soil found in the region, the Brooklyn neighborhood changed its name to Bay Ridge in 1853 to avoid popular association with yellow fever.

Voices In Time

1892 | New York City

Land Grant

Designating a place to put the plagued.More

Voices In Time

1911 | Venice

Safety First

Thomas Mann uncovers a hidden cholera epidemic.More

Voices In Time

c. 30 | Galilee

Be Thou Clean

Jesus greets a leper.More

Charts & Graphs

Flu Fallout

A majority of the estimated 675,000 American deaths from the influenza pandemic of 1918–19 occurred during the second wave, which swept the country throughout the fall of 1918.

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