THE POX AND THE COVENANT: MATHER, FRANKLIN, AND THE EPIDEMIC THAT CHANGED AMERICA’S DESTINY
Book ID/图书代码： 12311011B50534
English Summary/英文概要： For one hundred years, God had held to his promise, and the colonists had as well. When the first Puritans sailed into Massachusetts in the seventeenth century, weak from the ocean journey, they formed a covenant with each other and with God to establish a city on a hill-a commitment to live uncorrupted lives together or all suffer divine wrath for their collective sin. But now, a century later, the arrival of one doomed ship would put this covenant to its greatest test.
On April 22, 1721, the HMS Seahorse arrived in Boston from the West Indies, carrying goods, cargo, and, unbeknownst to its crew, a deadly virus. Soon, a smallpox epidemic had broken out in Boston, causing hundreds of deaths and panic across the city. The clergy, including the famed Cotton Mather, turned to their standard form of defense against disease: fasting and prayer. But a new theory was also being offered to the public by the scientific world: inoculation. The fierce debate over the right way to combat the tragedy would become a battle between faith and reason, one that would set the city aflame with rage and riot.
The Pox and the Covenant is a story of well known figures such as Cotton Mather, James Franklin, and a young Benjamin Franklin struggling to fight for their cause among death and debate-although not always for the side one would expect. In the end, the incredible results of the epidemic and battle would reshape the colonists’ view of their destiny, setting for America a new course, a new covenant, and the first drumbeats of revolution.
Chinese Summary/中文概要： 100来年，上帝遵守了他的承诺，殖民者们也是。当第一批清教徒于16世纪漂洋过海来到马萨诸塞州，由于旅途劳顿，他们与当地居民在上帝面前结下契约：他们会在山上建立城市，绝不打扰，否则就会受到上帝的责罚。但是现在，一个世纪之后，另一艘满载殖民者的船靠岸了，这使得契约受到了严峻的挑战。
1721年4月22日，皇家海马号从西印度群岛而来，到达波士顿，船员带来了货物，还有他们谁也不知道的，致命的病菌。很快，天花在波士顿爆发，几百人死去，恐惧笼罩着波士顿。神职人员，包括著名的科顿·马瑟采取了应对疾病的标准防御：禁食和祈祷。但是相信科学的人们则向公众提供了另一个防御措施：接种疫苗。这两种截然不同的抵御天花的方法使得代表理智和信仰的双方争执不休，这也使整座城市被愤怒和暴乱包围。
《瘟疫和契约》的主人公是著名的科顿·马瑟，詹姆斯·富兰克林和年轻的本杰明·富兰克林，他们都以自己的方式与天花抗争。最终，瘟疫和战争会改变殖民者们对自我命运的看法，将美国推向一条新的轨迹，建立一个新的契约，奏响了革命的第一个鼓点。（XAT）
Awards/获奖情况：对《瘟疫和契约》的褒奖：
“对清教徒压抑而封闭思想贴切的描写。”——《波士顿全球报》
“对美国医药历史很好的描叙。”——《出版者周刊》
“当今社会对接种疫苗仍有争议，历史正在重演。威廉的《瘟疫和契约》出版地非常及时，也很吸引人。”——《书目》
Praise for Pox and the Covenant:
"A welcome shade of gray into the traditional depiction of Puritans as repressive and closed-minded" - Boston Globe
"A fascinating aside to American medical history." - Publisher’s Weekly
"With present-day controversy over vaccination, everything old is new again. And Williams’ history is timely as well as engaging." - Booklist
About the Author/作者介绍： 托尼·威廉教授历史和文学十余年了，他拥有美国俄亥俄州立大学美国历史学士学位。他目前是一位全职作家，与妻子和孩子住在弗吉尼亚州威廉斯堡。
Tony Williams taught history and literature for ten years, and has a Master’s in American History from Ohio State University. He is currently a full-time author who lives in Williamsburg, Virginia, with his wife and children.
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Rights Status/版权销售情况：Simplified Chinese/简体中文：AVAILABLE
Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文：AVAILABLE
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