The Pox and the Covenant

By Tony Williams - "Mather, Franklin, and the Epidemic That Changed America's Destiny". Interesting story of the small pox epidemic of 1721 which hit Boston, MA. I envisioned that the story would be about Benjamin Franklin introducing early techniques to vaccinate against this dread disease. Instead the "hero" of the story was Cotton Mather, who risked his standing in the community to support efforts to try to prevent more deaths from small pox. The book also covers the Puritan religion and their beliefs as practiced in the first 100 years of the colony in MA. Is it a little dry at times but as a microbiologist, I found it interesting to learn at a religious name that was also working as a scientist in the American Colonies.