Set in a booming turn-of-the-century San Francisco, this book follows the arrival of bubonic plague aboard ships and its spread into the city's neighborhoods. The account situates the outbreak within the city's bustling ports, hotels, and immigrant communities, and explains how rats and fleas introduced the disease.

Public-health officials struggled to contain the crisis. Quarantine officer Dr. Joseph Kinyoun diagnosed the plague early but faced fierce political and social pushback. Years later Dr. Rupert Blue redirected efforts from lab to street, emphasizing sanitation and targeting infected rodents to stop transmission.

Combining narrative immediacy with archival research, the book traces the epidemiology, politics, and social tensions that shaped the response and eventual eradication of the disease.

• Detailed account of the 1900–1905 outbreak
• Profiles of key public-health figures
• Examination of sanitation, rat control, and urban policy
• Historical perspective on epidemic response

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