John Harvey Powell (1914-1971) graduated from Swarthmore College and earned his Ph.D. degree in American History
at the University of Iowa.
Review
"A brilliant case study of the visitation of the scourge in Penn's city."
--American Historical Review
"A fascinating history of Philadelphia's great plague. Historian Powell's conscientious grubbing among the
records pays off with a cumulative effect of horror and heroism seldom found in the most artful fiction."
--Time
"Unique in its weaving of the timeless aspects of human behavior with an authentic account of a major epidemic
in American and medical history, this book is carefully researched and a very good read."
--Nursing History Review
University of Pennsylvania Press Web Site, August, 2000
Summary
In 1793 a disastrous plague of yellow fever paralyzed Philadelphia, killing thousands of residents and bringing
the nation's capital city to a standstill. In this psychological portrait of a city in terror, J. H. Powell presents
a penetrating study of human nature revealing itself. Bring Out Your Dead is an absorbing account, form the original
sources, of an infamous tragedy that left its mark on all it touched.
