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The Fever of 1721
The Fever of 1721: The Epidemic That Revolutionized Medicine and American Politics | Stephen Coss
4 posts | 9 read | 9 to read
More than fifty years before the American Revolution, Boston was in revolt against the tyrannies of the Crown, Puritan Authority, and Superstition. This is the story of a fateful year that prefigured the events of 1776. In The Fever of 1721, Stephen Coss brings to life an amazing cast of characters in a year that changed the course of medical history, American journalism, and colonial revolution, including Cotton Mather, the great Puritan preacher, son of the president of Harvard College; Zabdiel Boylston, a doctor whose name is on one of Bostons grand avenues; James and his younger brother Benjamin Franklin; and Elisha Cooke and his protg Samuel Adams. During the worst smallpox epidemic in Boston history Mather convinced Doctor Boylston to try a procedure that he believed would prevent deathby making an incision in the arm of a healthy person and implanting it with smallpox. Inoculation led to vaccination, one of the most profound medical discoveries in history. Public outrage forced Boylston into hiding, and Mathers house was firebombed. A political fever also raged. Elisha Cooke was challenging the Crown for control of the colony and finally forced Royal Governor Samuel Shute to flee Massachusetts. Samuel Adams and the Patriots would build on this to resist the British in the run-up to the American Revolution. And a bold young printer James Franklin (who was on the wrong side of the controversy on inoculation), launched Americas first independent newspaper and landed in jail. His teenage brother and apprentice, Benjamin Franklin, however, learned his trade in Jamess shop and became a father of the Independence movement. One by one, the atmosphere in Boston in 1721 simmered and ultimately boiled over, leading to the full drama of the American Revolution.
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review
trueisa4letterword
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Pickpick

I read this in almost the same place almost 300 years later in very similar circumstances. This is more of a history of printing and politics than the epidemic making it an account of the beginning of the end of colonial Boston. (Bonus: the author details all of the ways Cotton Mather's life went sideways after the witch trails.)

#nonfiction #history

mrsmarch So clearly I don‘t need to pass you my copy when I‘m done reading.... 📚 💚 4y
trueisa4letterword Haha I'd say something about you FINALLY starting to read this, but it took be FOUR YEARS to get around to reading it after I shelved it on Goodreads... 4y
5 likes2 comments
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trueisa4letterword
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This treasure came all the way from Ashland!

#curbside #nonfiction

review
Ellsbeth
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Pickpick

A fascinating history of a Boston smallpox epidemic which spawned the widespread use of inoculations, freedom of the press & 1st amendment, and influenced the Revolutionary War. Bob Souer, the narrator, has a good voice and kept me interested. Photo is part of a Silence Dogood letter in the New England Courant, James & Ben Franklin's feisty paper. Note: Received a free copy in exchange for an honest review from LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

Riveted_Reader_Melissa This sounds really interesting! I'll keep my eyes open for this one. 8y
22 likes4 stack adds1 comment
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Ellsbeth
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I'll add a review later, but I just want to say that I managed to finish my audio book for #24in48 and #HSreadathon! I did much better than I thought I would this weekend and I surpassed my goals, so I am happy. It was a fun time. Thanks @24in48 and @Litsy ! 🎉❤️📚

BookishFeminist Great job!!🎉😊📚 8y
LauraJ Looking forward to you review. 8y
29 likes2 stack adds2 comments