11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Cotton Mather as hero? Fascinating perspective., April 24, 2010
This review is from: The Pox and the Covenant: Mather, Franklin, and the Epidemic That Changed America's Destiny (Hardcover)
My family visited the Boston area in 2007, during which time I indulged my passion for all things historical, especially those things involving the Salem Witch Trials. I'm mad about the witch trials, consumed with interest about them. Being in the area where everything transpired was a remarkable experience. I spent hours wandering the cemeteries in Boston and Salem both, looking for graves related to the major players in the trials. When I came upon the graves of Increase and Cotton Mather I felt such revulsion, no matter how much time had passed, for the parts they played in the travesty. Little did I realize there was much more to the story than I'd been led to believe.
When I read a pre-pub review of 'The Pox and the Covenant' I knew I'd have my hands on it as soon as I could. All the other books in my pile shoved aside, I started reading it. And I couldn't stop. I read it straight through, start to finish.
Here, for the first time I've seen, was a Cotton Mather with a heart. A man beside himself with worry on account of his own children contracting the dread disease smallpox, but also on behalf of the families of Boston. Not only that, which was surprising enough. He actively sought out medical literature relating to inoculations, reading early positive reports highlighting relative success with the procedure, promising a glimmer of hope on the horizon.
The same man who believed in witchcraft could be modern enough to encourage a radical new medical procedure? It was a revelation to me.
Putting his own reputation, and the lives and reputations of his family, on the line, Mather pursued the matter further. Speaking with a local doctor he persuaded the man to give the idea a try - to begin the process of inoculating smallpox victims. As one success led to another, neither man could doubt this was the answer to stopping the disease afflicting Boston. The problem was convincing the people.
It's nearly impossible for us to fathom the radical nature of this idea, how the populace of Boston would have seen it. To do so we'd have to understand the superstitious nature of their everyday lives, the distrust of anything new or different, the fear of the unknown. With medical marvels a near everyday occurrence, so little seems radical to us. But to 18th century Bostonians, all medicine not based on past practices involving balancing the "humors" was a frightening, and suspicious, prospect.
On the other side, a young Benjamin Franklin was striking out as a printer, an aspiring journalist and writer. With his satiric essays appearing anonymously in his brother's newspaper, Franklin sniped at Mather, chipping away at his reputation, mocking his innovative ideas as quackery. He sided with the people, the ignorant masses standing between Mather and the elimination of a horrifying disease. For a man who would later be revered for his advancement of science, as a young man he seemed more interested in journalistic popularity than truth.
With this as a framework, Williams creates a fascinating tale of two major historical figures, one beloved and the other reviled, pitted against each other struggling to win over the trust of the citizens of Boston. The tale is a fascinating one told concisely and with much scholarship to back it up.
Though a work of history it's as compulsively readable as a novel. Only better, because it's true.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This book surprised me, August 25, 2010
This review is from: The Pox and the Covenant: Mather, Franklin, and the Epidemic That Changed America's Destiny (Hardcover)
In 1721, the British warship HMS Seahorse dropped anchor in Boston harbor, and the crew began to take shore leave. But, unbeknownst to anyone there was a stowaway aboard the Seahorse, smallpox. As the pox began to spread through Boston, Rev. Cotton Mather decided that Boston needed to take advantage of a fascinating technique to defeat it, inoculation. However, Mather and his supporters soon found themselves up against the entire community of doctors, doctors who were wedded to a particular form of treatment. The doctors launched wave after wave of personal attacks against the supporters of inoculation, all the while ignoring any evidence that their consensus was wrong. And into this strange battle walked a bright young printer, Benjamin Franklin, who was determined to affect the outcome, and stop the fiendish inoculations!
Well, I must say that this book surprised me. It takes an historic event and holds it up to show just how wrong established histories can be. Puritan pastors as vanguards of the new science? Who would have thought it? This whole event must have been an awakening for the young Ben Franklin, who later went on to be remembered as one of the greatest of America's early scientists.
What I found most fascinating was how the scientists of the day (as doctors were) rallied around a preconceived idea, and refused to budge from it, using personal invective to fight against anyone who challenged their consensus, rather than looking logically at the data - which in an instant would have destroyed their belief. In time the consensus was broken, and the truth won out, but the cost was so high!
This is a very interesting book, one that really takes your preconceived notions and runs them through the wringer. Want to read about a moment in history that will blow your mind? Read this book!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good Topic, Poor Writing, December 3, 2010
This review is from: The Pox and the Covenant: Mather, Franklin, and the Epidemic That Changed America's Destiny (Hardcover)
The historical value of what is contained in the book is very high. It covers some of the most critical cultural issues of the times in which the story is set. The value and importance of the book is seriously depreciated by a choppy writing style and seriously strained sentence and paragraph constuction. Both the writer and the editor who let this tedious style slip through should hang their heads in shame.
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