Guenter B. Risse, Driven by Fear: Epidemics and Isolation in San Francisco’s House of Pestilence

Driven by Fear is the most recent monograph by the eminent medical historian of San Francisco, Gunther Risse. His new contribution to the epidemics of America’s west coast ‘Paris’ focuses on the rich history of the city’s pesthouse. Risse presents this institution as both a place and a parable in which multiple disease biographies converge with the racially-motivated abolition of individual rights for the sake of public interest. Risse explores how the history of emotions—such as disgust and fear—is interwoven with the political practices of physical and moral-gatekeeping. He positions the pesthouse firmly at the centre of a wide range of medical and social questions at the turn of the twentieth century and in so doing delivers a new perspective on this unique birthplace of American Public Health.The opening...