Black Death at the Golden Gate

A spine- chilling saga of virulent racism, human folly, and the ultimate triumph of scientific progress.For Chinese immigrant Wong Chut King, surviving in San Francisco meant a life in the shadows. His passing on March 6, 1900, would have been unremarkable if a city health officer hadn't noticed a swollen black lymph node on his groin— a sign of bubonic plague. Empowered by racist pseudoscience, officials rushed to quarantine Chinatown. If the disease was not contained, San Francisco would become the American epicenter of an outbreak that had already claimed ten million lives worldwide.To local press, railroad barons, and elected officials, such a possibility was inconceivable— or inconvenient. As they proceeded to obscure the threat, it fell to federal health officer Rupert Blue to save the city, and the nation, from a gruesome fate.In the tradition of Erik Larson and Steven Johnson, bestselling author David K. Randall spins...