Get Free Shipping on orders over $0
Typhoid Mary : Captive to the Public's Health
eTextbook alternate format product

Instant online reading.
Don't wait for delivery!

Go digital and save!

Typhoid Mary

Captive to the Public's Health

Hardcover | 2 March 2027

At a Glance

Hardcover


RRP $55.00

$47.99

13%OFF

or 4 interest-free payments of $12.00 with

 or 

Available: 2nd March 2027

Preorder. Will ship when available.

Discover the forgotten story of Mary Mallon-the real Typhoid Mary-in this humanizing portrait offering a window into the ethical dilemmas of public health policy that continue to haunt us in the COVID era.

She was an Irish immigrant cook. Between 1900 and 1907, she infected 22 New Yorkers with typhoid fever through her puddings and cakes; one of them died. Tracked down through epidemiological detective work, she was finally apprehended as she hid behind a barricade of trashcans. To protect the public's health, authorities isolated her on Manhattan's North Brother Island, where she died some 30 years later.

This book tells the remarkable story of Mary Mallon-the real Typhoid Mary. Combining social history with biography, historian Judith Leavitt re-creates early 20th-century New York City, a world of strict class divisions and prejudice against immigrants and women. Leavitt engages the reader with the excitement of the early days of microbiology and brings to life the conflicting perspectives of journalists, public health officials, the law, and Mary Mallon herself.

Leavitt's readable account illuminates dilemmas that continue to haunt us in the age of COVID-19. To what degree are we willing to sacrifice individual liberty to protect the public's health? How far should we go? For anyone who is concerned about the threats and quandaries posed by new epidemics, Typhoid Mary is a vivid reminder of the human side of disease and disease control.

More in Social Aspects of Illness & Addictions

All the Way to the River : My Story of Love, Loss and Liberation - Elizabeth Gilbert
All the Way to the River : Love, Loss and Liberation - Elizabeth Gilbert
Nova Scotia House : A Novel - Charlie Porter

RRP $24.99

$21.75

13%
OFF
Blitzed : Drugs in Nazi Germany - Norman Ohler

RRP $26.99

$22.99

15%
OFF
The Age Code : The New Science of Food and How It Can Save Us - David Cox
Dreamseller : An Addiction Memoir - Bam Magera

RRP $39.99

$31.75

21%
OFF
Modern Nature : Journals, 1989 - 1990 - Derek Jarman

RRP $26.99

$22.99

15%
OFF
The End of Loneliness - Benedict Wells

RRP $23.99

$20.99

13%
OFF
Digital Minimalism : Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World - Cal Newport
Drug Use in Australian Society : 2nd edition - Alison Ritter

RRP $99.95

$85.75

14%
OFF
Crip Stories : An Anthology of Disabled Writers - BS Windon

RRP $34.99

$29.99

14%
OFF
I Remember Everything : Shortlisted for the 2024 Hungerford Award - Fiona Wilkes