Almanac for July 26th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for July 26th: https://ko-fi.com/post/July-26th-George-Bernard-Shaws-birthday-I3I6103RSF

Artist Birthday: George Bernard Shaw

Milwaukee Leader, March 9, 1926

Bummer July 26th

July 26, 1863: Ballerina Emma Livry dies of complications of extensive burns she suffered on November 15, 1862. While rehearsing for a role in a ballet, Livry’s skirts came too near to the stage’s gaslights and caught fire. 

Fire-resistant fabrics were available to dancers of that time, but Livry, like many other dancers of the era, avoided them because of the way they discolored the fabric. She suffered burns to her legs, waist, back, arms, and shoulders. She is only 20 years old at the time of her death.

This is the affiliate link. This is a review of a different book by Jennifer Wright.

July 26, 1952: First Lady of Argentina María Eva (Evita) Duarte de Perón dies of cervical cancer at the age of 33.

July 26, 2009: An automobile crash on the Taconic State Parkway near Mount Pleasant, New York State, kills eight people. A minivan driven by Diane Schuler, age 36, was observed driving the wrong way down the parkway. The minivan collided with an SUV, killing Schuler, her daughter, her three nieces, and three people inside the SUV. Toxicology reports showed Schuler was heavily intoxicated. Schuler’s son survived the crash, but has ongoing injuries.

July 26, 2015: Bobbi Kristina Houston Brown, the daughter of Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, dies in a hospice care facility at the age of 22. She had been in a coma for the previous six months after being found unresponsive in her Georgia home by her fiancé, Nick Gordon. Brown was discovered face-down in her bathtub less than three years after her mother died in a bathtub at a hotel in Los Angeles. 

Eerily similar to her mother’s passing, Brown was found to have been intoxicated with alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, prescription drugs, and other substances when she apparently drowned in her bathtub.

'Get Well Soon: History's Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them' by Jennifer Wright

Get Well Soon: History's Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them by Jennifer Wright

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

If your favorite podcast is Sawbones, this book is for you.

This is the first book I've read by Wright, but I really enjoyed her writing style and authorial voice. She belongs to the Roxane Gay school of feminist scholarship that has a sense of humor but puts up with no bullshit. Beginning with the Antonine Plague (probably of smallpox) that killed between 10 and 18 million ancient Romans during the reign of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, Wright examines how societies reacted each time a mass illness raged through them.

In a predictable historical pattern, individuals have two reactions to plagues: To take advantage (often by selling bogus cures) and to genuinely try to ease suffering. There's a bit of good news in there: Namely, that there's never been a mass illness without individuals reacting with compassion and trying their best to help, even if the cause of the illness was not yet understood. For every bad reaction (like some of the crap that happened to Typhoid Mary), there were people like Father Damien (of Molokai fame) who risked their own lives in the service of others.

Some of humanity's previous plagues were caused by diseases that are curable now. Tuberculosis was the bane of the 18th and 19th centuries, for example, but can now be eliminated with antibiotics. So, too, can syphilis, although knowing this doesn't do much to help the victims of the infamous Tuskegee experiments whose lives were lost or irreparably altered by their unethical doctors withholding the cure from them. (Shame, America. Shame.)

Other plagues could still kill us today. The bubonic plague that ravaged Europe in the Middle Ages is still with us. About a dozen Americans get it every year. We could drive ourselves to anxiety thinking about the "Spanish" (actually American) flu spread by service members quartered close together to wage the Great War. Influenza is still one of our deadliest infections and still has no cure.

But worrying us about plagues that will happen in the future isn't Wright's purpose. She's more interested in documenting the ways we've always reacted when our friends, family members, neighbors, and ourselves fall ill in large numbers. Are children cared for or abandoned? Do we spread deadly misinformation, focus on what facts we can glean, or expend our energy on compassion? This book combines sociology, psychology, and medical history.

The most recent plague examined is that of polio*, which terrified Americans through the middle of the 20th century when it could be cured. Wright chose to focus on those epidemics in which the key players are historical ones. In her epilogue, she mentions the AIDS epidemic of the late 1970s and 1980s. She chose not to write about it because it's still within living memory to a much greater extent than polio. I can appreciate that decision. Having lived through the 1980s, I can understand why it's tough to be objective about the lack of government response to the deaths of so many innocent people. (And all victims of disease are innocent - microbes are not a moral judgment).

If you read this book, you'll learn some interesting historical facts. You'll be impressed by the heroes of history who did their best to respond with compassionate care. You'll be saddened by a few less-than-desirable aspects of human behavior. And hopefully, if you ever find yourself caught in a plague, you'll be a little bit wiser. I'll do my best to try to err on the side of compassion. While also remembering that personal protective gear exists.

I borrowed this audiobook from my local library using the Libby app and was not obligated in any way to review it.

*Upon reflection, the encephalitis lethargica epidemic may come after the polio chapter.