Typhoid Mary

In this book, historian Judith Walzer Leavitt tells the remarkable story of Mary Mallon, the woman known as "Typhoid Mary." Combining social history with biography, Leavitt brings to life early-twentieth-century New York City, a world of strict class divisions and prejudice against immigrants and women. She re-creates the excitement of the early days of microbiology and explores the conflicting perspectives of journalists, public health officials, the law, and Mary Mallon herself. Mary Mallon was the first healthy carrier of typhoid to be carefully traced in North America, but there were…