Mary Mallon’s Forced Isolation as a Typical Gilded Age Disaster

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For my chapter I’ve chosen to read “Extraordinary and Even Arbitrary Powers,” which discusses Mary Mallon’s place in the history and role in evolution of public health policy. I was especially motivated to examine this chapter because it seemed to be somewhat of a departure from the more culturally grounded historical approach I’ve been taking in my project.

Ironically, I found the chapter to be especially interesting due to its cultural implications. It informs an understanding of Gilded Age culture’s conduciveness to disaster. More specifically, the isolation of Mary Mallon, if considered a disaster, demonstrates the pitfalls of the Gilded Age belief in the infallibility of science, or scientific method, to solve any problem. If I remember correctly, this concept been discussed in quite a few class discussions and likely some blog posts.

This way that this belief in the infallibility of science contributed to Gilded Age disasters is seen in the Galveston Hurricane and the city planners’ refusal to appreciate the environmental dangers of the city’s location, the “unsinkable” Titanic, and faith in the damn overlooking Johnstown.

As argued in “Extraordinary and Even Arbitrary Powers,” Mary Mallons capture and subsequent isolation can be viewed as a manifestation of the belief that it was possible for humankind to conquer disease. This was due to the confidence brought about by rapid scientific advancement, particularly in the field of bacteriological studies. By choosing to ignore Mallon’s constitutional rights and freedoms for exclusively scientific reasons, the New York City Board of Health and, insomuch as it tolerated this injustice, society on the whole, allowed a belief in the exclusive ability of science to better society to supersede the constitutional rights on which this very same society was founded. In the sense that dismissal of these constitutional rights was, or at the very least had potential to be, disastrous, Mary Mallon’s incarceration was representative of a Gilded Age disaster.