This week were headed to 1895 when America was deep into The Great Book Scare to meet Jessie Allan, a librarian in Omaha, Nebraska whose death from tuberculosis unwittingly fueled a book burning fire. Although tuberculosis was common at the time, Allan’s case of "consumption" reignited misinformation about the disease – specifically that she had contracted it from… books. The Great Book Scare lasted roughly from 1880–1915. Welcome to our 1stDiversion episode, where we’ll take a deep dive to learn more about human reaction to fear, misinformation, book burning, and how Americans became convinced that library books spread deadly diseases.

Visit www.theglobalgoodpodcast.com to find all the resources you need to learn more and Take Action with the organizations and partners mentioned in today’s episode.

Intro music by Siddhartha Corsus - Sita's Song

Produced by WillPower Productions

Information Resources:

Joseph Hayes, Smithsonian Magazine: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/during-great-book-scare-people-worried-contaminated-books-could-spread-disease-180972967/

Annika Mann: https://www.amazon.com/Reading-Contagion-Hazards-Age-Print/dp/0813941776

Michael Kevane & William A. Sundstrom: https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1039&context=econ

Gerald Greenberg's 1988 article Books as Disease Carriers: https://kb.osu.edu/bitstream/handle/1811/47391/GreenbergGS_LibrariesandCulture_1988_v23n3p281-294.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

History of Tuberculosis: https://www.cdc.gov/tb/worldtbday/history.htm

Top 35 Libraries in the world: https://www.thebestcolleges.org/amazing-libraries/