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    The Fever of 1721: The Epidemic That Revolutionized Medicine and American Politics
    The Fever of 1721: The Epidemic That Revolutionized Medicine and American Politics
    The Fever of 1721: The Epidemic That Revolutionized Medicine and American Politics
    Audiobook9 hours

    The Fever of 1721: The Epidemic That Revolutionized Medicine and American Politics

    Written by Stephen Coss

    Narrated by Bob Souer

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    In The Fever of 1721, Stephen Coss brings to life an amazing cast of characters in a year that changed the course of history, including Cotton Mather, the great Puritan preacher; Zabdiel Boylston, a doctor whose name is on one of Boston's grand avenues; James and his younger brother Benjamin Franklin; and Elisha Cooke and his protege Samuel Adams.

    During the worst smallpox epidemic in Boston history, Mather convinced Doctor Boylston to try a procedure that he believed would prevent death-by 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.

    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 bold young printer James Franklin launched America's first independent newspaper and landed in jail. His teenage brother, Benjamin Franklin, however, learned his trade in James's shop and became a father of the Independence movement.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateMar 22, 2016
    ISBN9781515974857

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    Reviews for The Fever of 1721

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this short book on early 18th century Boston. The title of the book is a bit deceiving as you would think the entire book is about the smallpox epidemic. While there is a great deal on the epidemic and the inoculation debate, a great deal of the book deals with the controversies and fights between the royal governor, colonial government, and the newspapers (specifically James Franklin's). I had never read about this time period in Boston, and it truly was the foundation of what became the center of rebellion for the next generation of leaders in the 1760s and 1770s. Recommended for fans of early American History.
    • 5/5
      A fascinating look at the history of inoculation in the colonial period as well as James and Ben Franklin. Very well written and informative. I thoroughly enjoyed the author's style and information he put forward. I learned a lot and enjoyed the ride.
    • 3/5
      I purchased this book due to my interest in the Boston small pox epidemic and Cotton Mather's unlikely role in it. The "fever" of the title, however, refers less to the epidemic and more to the political fever of the restless colonies in the pre-revolutionary war era as reflected primarily in its press, both generally and in the person of James Franklin (older brother of Ben) and his New England Courant. In effect, Franklin and his literary progeny introduced to America the novel idea that the press ought to expose and critique the follies of the government and the religious establishment, not just to sing its praises. Coss believes the work of Franklin set off the events of the revolution fifty years later, and he is largely persuasive in his account.

      What this work lacks, however, was any particular new information about the actual epidemic and the fight to introduce inoculation (which was opposed by much of the medical establishment of the time, primarily because "slaves and Asiatics" were the source of the concept) to fight off the epidemic. Mather was an early champion of inoculation, but he does not redeem himself in these pages. He comes off as the same self-interested coward he was during the Salem witch trials. While Coss describes him as "well-meaning," nothing he cites suggests Mather acted other than from self-interest (albeit a self-interest in line with potential sufferers of smallpox).

      In any event, this is a crisp brief read without unnecessary flourish and is devoid of academic jargon. It is padded with material that follows up on the lives of the various main characters and their progeny through the revolutionary era, which has some intrinsic human interest but not particularly relevant to the work's thesis.
    • 4/5
      Who would have thought? Set in colonial Boston in the early 1720s, the author weaves a fascinating account of how the small pox epidemic and inoculation controversy contributed to the growth of early newspapers as a medium for popular consumption. Throw in characters including Puritan minister Cotton Mather (a far more complex person that often recognized) and a young Ben Franklin and you have a book well worth reading.
    • 4/5
      This is a fascinating book about a pivotal smallpox epidemic in pre-Revolutionary Boston. It delves into this multi-faceted history, explaining the impact of this even on the development of immunizations, the freedom of the press and the 1st amendment, the lead up to the American Revolution, and more. The history seems very relevant to current events. I was happy to learn more about Cotton Mather, Benjamin Franklin, and the significant contributions of James Franklin. The audio narrator, Bob Sour, lends an authoritative voice to the story that kept my interest. The only drawback I had in listening to this book was that I tried to spread it out. In doing so, I found myself losing track of the various players and events of the story. I suggest a more compact listen to more easily keep track of the various threads. I’ll be recommending this book to others and I look forward to reading more from Stephen Coss. Note: I received a free copy of this book from the LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program.
    • 4/5
      A lively tale of the 1721 smallpox epidemic in Boston. During this epidemic Ben Franklin got his start as a newspaperman and Cotton Mather pursued the cause of science and becomes a member of the Royal Society. A useful reminder that Boston was an uppity pain to Great Britain a good 50 years before the Tea Party and Massacre. The story also reminds us that nutters were attacking people because of what they had read about them then as now.A lengthy epilogue probably exaggerates the importance of some of the events, but is nonetheless interesting.Probably the most important character in the book is not Boylston, the doctor who inoculated roughly 100 Bostonians, or the governor of Massachusetts, but James Franklin, the publisher of the newspaper "The Boston Courant", and Ben Franklin's older and more alcoholic brother.James Franklin's anti-Harvard diatribes (he called just about everybody associated with Harvard a bunch of stuck-up plagiarists) are kind of on the ball today.The Puritan vs. Anglican battle was pretty funny.It is alway nice to be reminded that a good many Protestants considered the celebration of Christmas to be a form of idolatry.The reader went in for a few mispronunciations, the most irritating being reading "ye" as "ye" instead of "the".
    • 3/5
      In general, I felt like Coss was writing two different books which only barely intersected and did not have the cause and effect aspect he proposes. The revolutionary aspect of this smallpox epidemic was that inoculation was used and there was a large battle about whether it was safe or efficacious. The practice was banned despite more success than failure. The idea for inoculation came from African and Asian sources, and the doctor practicing it mostly succeeded (those who died after inoculation were generally the elderly, the weak, and those who had already contracted smallpox prior to being inoculated).The politics come in due to the battles between the Boston city council and British crown representatives, and the changing of the giving way of the Puritan powers. Also, Benjamin Franklin was working in his brother's printing shop in Boston in this period and had some anonymous editorials published. Coss states that the American Revolution started here, and that Boston was in revolt against the tyrannies of the crown, but I feel this is a pretty big stretch.Stating that this epidemic radicalized Franklin also seems semi-ridiculous to me. His involvement with the inoculation battle came in his brother printing anti-inoculation articles (and other political items subject to censorship and arrest) solely because Cotton Mather (yes, that one) was a force in suggesting and supporting inoculation. So Franklin was radicalized by his brother unfairly vilifying someone based on personal feelings? Okay... The two stories are interesting, but tacking them together and attempting to turn them into something extra sensational didn't serve either story well. The history of inoculation is really interesting on its own and doesn't need to be dressed up. Likewise the history of early pushbacks against Crown power in the US is plenty interesting (but since it's mostly about personal gains and losses of a few leading figures I think it's unfair to say the Boston city council was revolutionary).Not recommended.
    • 4/5
      This nonfiction about the smallpox epidemic in Boston in the years leading up to the American Revolution is full of interesting facts. I knew a little bit about most things mentioned in the book, but I learned more. Inoculation, and the doctor who most performed it, was very controversial, and caused discord, some of which was never overcome.Dr. Boylston, the Franklin brothers, and Cotton Mather were especially interesting to me. I knew about Mather from the witch trials, but did not know he waded into the inoculation fray.Given that, the book was occasionally a bit on the dry side and occasionally seemed a bit disjointed to me. Perhaps I would not have felt that way if I'd read it rather than listening to it, although the narrator did a good job. Still, the book is informative and well worth reading.I was given an audio copy of this book for review.
    • 4/5
      The Fever of 1721 should be about the smallpox epidemic of 1721, and it is, but it also draws on other subjects such as freedom of the press when newspapers were just starting out, piracy, colonial politics with the crown, early biography of Ben Franklin and the printing press, Cotton Mather. It's not what I expected, but I can't really complain - I kept learning new things. Coss brings the time alive and makes it feel immediate through the judicial use of period language.This is a Club Sandwich of a book.
    • 2/5
      I listened to this as an audio book. I was particularly interested in the smallpox epidemic and the discovery of vaccination and was led to believe this would be the major topic covered in this book. this was not the case.I did not like the narrator, Bob Souer. I found his tone to be very flat and expressionless. This made it hard to follow what was going on. I also thought the author Stephen Cross, could not make up his mind what the book was really about. He could have benefited by making this into at least three books, a biography of Cotton Mather, one of James Franklin, and one about the history of the newspaper industry in New England.The book could have used some editing, the author has many unimportant details, like writing that the women fanned themselves in church, that are not relevant to anything that is going on in the story. Also he could not decide whether to use first or last names when referring to the main characters which was confusing to me, especially with a character named "James," which could be a first or last name.I really enjoyed the parts about smallpox and the influence of the smallpox epidemic on the politicians of that time. All in all too much for one book.
    • 3/5
      We are all familiar with the Founding Fathers and the events that lead to the American Revolution. Stephen Coss points to events in 1721 as the seeds of that revolution two generations later in his new book: The Fever of 1721.The Boston of 1721 was already full of conflicts between American colonists and the British crown that would lead to the revolution 50 years later. The royal governor, Samuel Shute, quickly came into conflict with Massachusetts legislature. The crown appointed the governor, but the local legislature was in charge of his compensation. The legislators voted to pay the new governor no salary.  This lead to the Massachusetts colony's government being paralyzed by dissent. The Abenaki Indians were become actively hostile as the colony continued to grow and settle further and further into New England and the natives' lands. War was increasingly likely. The financial markets were a mess with a crippling currency shortage. The English financial markets were suffering from the bursting of the “South Sea Bubble”.In April 1721, the Seahorse, a British navy frigate, sailed into Boston harbor after hunting pirates. But it carried a deadly cargo: smallpox. In the 17th and 18th century, towns like Boston were struck by a smallpox epidemic ever decade or so. The Seahorse was supposed to dock at Spectacle Island to prevent infection. But the quarantine procedures failed. One fourth of Boston's population contracted smallpox, and almost 10% of the population died.A local clergyman heard the tale of one of his family’s African slaves about the West African method of inserting pus from a smallpox victim into an uninfected person. The recipient would gain immunity while usually suffering only a mild form of the disease. The clergyman began advocating for this treatment.However, the clergyman was Cotton Mather, one of the main players in the Salem witch trials. He had to overcome the public's suspicion of him and the overt racism of relying on an African method as a legitimate medical procedure.The local papers were involved in the controversy about this medical procedure. Perhaps the biggest flamethrower of publishing in Boston was James Franklin, publisher of the New-England Courant, and his younger brother/apprentice, Benjamin Franklin. The Courant was trying to operate as an independent newspaper, published without government license. It criticized the vaccination procedure as well as Boston's government and influential citizens. The Franklin brothers thought the medical procedure would just further spread the disease and unnecessarily kill the patients.The Fever of 1721 pulls together these tales of medical innovation, freedom of the press, government strife, and economic crisis. I had not heard of this portion of Boston's history and found the stories to be fascinating.I'm a sucker for books on Boston history and took a copy from the publisher in exchange for a review.
    • 5/5
      The smallpox epidemic of 1721 is noteworthy because it marks the introduction of inoculations in the American Colonies. In 1721 the Puritans were losing power, colonists were tiring of royal authority, and a daring James Franklin published the first independent newspaper. Stephen Coss blends all this together into a very readable and well researched depiction of life in Boston fifty years before the American Revolution. I listened to the audio version, read by Bob Souer. I generally don't listen to nonfiction books because my mind tends to wander, but this one held my interest. A good book about a fascinating period of American history.
    • 4/5
      I received a free advanced readers copy of this audiobook through the Library Thing Early Reviewers program in exchange for an honest review. This was a fascinating book covering events that took place 50 years before the Revolutionary war. We learn about the key players in the fight to prevent Smallpox. I knew about Cotton Mather and his role in the Salem Witch trials but I never knew about the role he played in trying to introduce the concept of inoculation against the smallpox virus.It was also interesting to learn about the political events that eventually lead up to the Revolutionary war. The relationship between James Franklin and his younger brother Ben was another fascinating part of the book. This book fills in the gaps for those of us who learned about the pilgrims and the Revolutionary war but not very much of what happened between those two events.
    • 5/5
      This is a fascinating snapshot of New England society during the early 1700s. While the book's central point is the smallpox epidemic and eventual inoculation, the focus is not at all that narrow. Within and surrounding this topic, we explore relationships, politics, medical care, and religion. The writing is clear and concise, and the content exceptionally well researched. I found the author's style thoroughly engaging. It's not at all a dry, textbook kind of read. Instead, I felt like I was immersed in the era, meeting the people, experiencing the terror of the epidemic and the fear of the unknown. Having grown up minutes from where much of this took place, I was surprised at how little detail I knew. We learn a bunch of dates and facts in history classes, but rarely the full, human story. And this is a remarkable, human story.*I received an advance ebook copy from the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.*