Driven by fear

Guenter B. Risse

From the late nenteenth century until the 1920s, authorities required San Francisco's Pesthouse to segregate the diseased from the rest of the city. Guenter B. Risse places this forgotten institution within an emotional climate dominated by widespread dread and disgust. Driven by Fear analyzes the stigma generated by emotional states like xenophobia and racism when combined with competing medical paradigms and the economic needs the encouraged authorities to protect San Francisco's reputation as a haven of health restoration. Risse delves into the spectrum of emotions that drove extreme measures like segregation and isolation and fed urges to scapegoat and stereotype victims -- particularly Chinese victims - of smallpox, leprosy, plague, and syphilis.