AMERICAN MURDERER
THE PARASITE THAT HAUNTED THE SOUTH
THE THIRD BOOK IN THE MEDICAL FIASCOES SERIES
Kentucky family suffering from hookworm disease (from Rockefeller Sanitary Commission, 4th Annual Report for the Year 1913)
EDUCATOR GUIDE
Click for AMERICAN MURDERER Educator Guide with discussion questions and curriculum connections.
Book contains Timeline, Glossary, Sources for More Information, Author’s Note, extensive Bibliography.
AMERICAN MURDERER can be used in history, science, and health classes.
AMERICAN MURDERER focuses on the late 1800s/early 1900s. Topics covered include U.S. public health; economic and social conditions in the post-Civil War South; the 1909–1914 Rockefeller Sanitary Commission, a government-private partnership established to end the hookworm epidemic; and biographies of scientists, doctors, and philanthropists involved in the campaign to diagnose and treat hookworm disease victims.
As a STEM resource, AMERICAN MURDERER discusses hookworm’s specialized body, its life cycle, and the parasite’s debilitating effect on its human victims. The book presents the scientific research that uncovered hookworm’s secrets and contributed to development of treatments and preventative methods.
The book’s final chapter discusses the status of hookworm today in the U.S. and around the world. One section covers the ongoing problem of soil-transmitted helminths (hookworm, Ascaris roundworm, whipworm) that currently infect 1.5 billion people.
NY SUN, December 5, 1902
VISUAL MATERIALS
Scientific photographs of hookworms
Archival images of hookworm disease victims, the hookworm eradication campaign, and the inadequate sanitary conditions that led to infection
Photographs of the scientists, physicians, public health workers, and philanthropists who tackled the hookworm epidemic
Archival printed matter: public health posters, educational materials designed for school children, and newspaper headlines
Mississippi teacher with her class at a free dispensary set up to diagnose and treat hookworm infections
(from Rockefeller Sanitary Commission, 5th Annual Report for 1914)
MORE TO EXPLORE
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, '“Parasites–Hookworm”
cdc.gov/parasites/hookworm
Discover information about human hookworm, including symptoms, treatment, and prevention.
Rockefeller Archive Center, The Rockefeller Foundation: A Digital History
rockfound.rockarch.org
Search “hookworm” to locate images and documents related to the Rockefeller Foundation’s campaign against the parasite. Under the Health menu, find information, documents, and photographs about the Rockefeller Sanitary Commission and the International Health Division.
”Unhooking the Hookworm”
youtube.com/watch?v=OD-sDlSDrKk
Check out a 1920 silent film about hookworm produced by the International Health Division. Watch a hookworm egg hatching, a larva entering a skin pore, and live adult larvae.
PBS, “The Rockefellers”
pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/rockefellers
The website from the 2000 episode contains information and photographs about John D. Rockefeller, his family, and their philanthropic work. The transcript of the documentary is available.
A dispensary in Alabama set up as part of the 1909–1914 campaign against hookworm (from the Rockefeller Archive Center)