Epidemic A Collision Of Power, Privilege, And Public Health

The dramatic account of a turn-of-the-twentieth-century struggle against a frightening disease with lessons for todayThe Epidemictells the story of how a vain and reckless businessman became responsible for a typhoid epidemic in 1903 that devastated Cornell University and the surrounding town of Ithaca, New York. Eighty-two people died, including twenty-nine Cornell students. Protected by influential friends, William T. Morris faced no retribution for this outrage. His legacy was a corporationfirst known as Associated Gas & Electric Co. and later as General Public Utilities Corp.that bedeviled America for a century. The Three Mile Island nuclear accident in 1979 was its most notorious historical event, but hardly its only offense against the public interest.The Ithaca epidemic came at a time when engineers knew how to prevent typhoid outbreaks but physicians could not yet cure the disease. Both professions were helpless when it came to stopping a corporate executive who placed profit over the public health. Government was a concerned but helpless bystander.For modern-day readers acutely aware of the risk of a devastating global pandemic and of the dangers of unrestrained corporate power,The Epidemicprovides a riveting look back at a heretofore little-known, frightening episode in America's past that seems all too familiar. Written in the tradition ofThe Devil In the White City, it is an utterly compelling, thoroughly researched work of narrative history with an edge. Praise for the author's previous book,Fire Underground "Enough bureaucratic villains to fill a Dickens novel." New York Times Book Review "DeKok has not only reported and written a compelling first-hand account of how an underground fire destroyed Centralia, but he even gives us an anatomy of how the disaster happened and analyzes its implications for one community, and in a sense for all of us. A thoughtful and thoroughly engrossing read!" Lisa Scottoline, author ofDirty Blonde,a fictional story about CentraliaDavid DeKokis the author ofFire Underground: The Ongoing Tragedy of the Centralia Mine Fire(Globe Pequot Press), which previously appeared asUnseen Danger.A former award-winning investigative reporter for thePatriot-Newsin Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, he has been a guest onFresh AirandThe Diane Rehm Show. In 2009, he appeared at length in Episode 6 of the History Channel'sLife After Peopleseries discussing Centralia, Pennsylvania.