| Review | Journal of Gilded Age and Progressive era, 4.4

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| Review | Journal of Gilded Age and Progressive era, 4.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Reviews

Public Health and Plague in Paradise

MOHR, JAMES C. Plague and Fire: Battling Black Death and the 1900 Burning of Honolulu's Chinatown. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. vii + 235 pp. Prologue, notes, and index. $30.00 (cloth), ISBN 0-19-516231-5.
In Plague and Fire: Battling Black Death and the 1900 Burning of Honolulu's Chinatown, James C. Mohr addresses one of the most important issues in the history of public health—the unintended consequences of public health policies. His well-written study explains how and why the Board of Health in Honolulu tried to fight the bubonic plague with fire and ended up burning down a large section of Chinatown.	1
The story of the fight against bubonic plague in Honolulu, one of many port cities facing a plague epidemic in the 1890s, is an interesting and compelling one. Mohr examines the topic not only in relation to the history of medicine and public health but also in relation to the history of American empire building in Hawaii. The result is a thoroughly researched, fascinating account that addresses late nineteenth-century politics, health, race relations, and imperialism.	2
Despite a wide cast of characters, Mohr's primary focus is on the three white doctors who ran the Republic of Hawaii's Board of Health during the plague crisis. He documents the actions of Nathaniel B. Emerson, Francis R. Day, and Clifford B. Wood, including their use of emergency powers during the epidemic. At a time when the United States had just annexed Hawaii, the civilian government of the islands temporarily suspended itself and for five months gave complete control to the three doctors of the Board of Health.	. . .

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