Plague Among the Magnolias: The 1878 Yellow Fever Epidemic in Mississippi

Plague Among the Magnolias: The 1878 Yellow Fever Epidemic in Mississippi. By Deanne Stephens Nuwer. (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, c. 2009. Pp. [xviii], 188. $34.95, ISBN 978-0-8173-1653-2.)

In this study Deanne Stephens Nuwer charts the origin and eventual demise of the yellow fever epidemic that hit Mississippi in 1878. She also reveals how the outbreak mobilized charity organizations, local officials, and ordinary citizens in efforts that led to "a more advanced" public health care system in Mississippi (p. x). Finally, she argues that during the epidemic "the nation transcended its sectional problems and joined together to console the plague-ridden South as outpourings of aid soothed old battle wounds" (p. 125).

One of this study's great strengths is Nuwer's impressive archival research. Drawing on newspaper accounts and a vast collection of family letters, Nuwer illustrates...