Garb's Perspective on Immigrant Workers and Infectious Diseases in Chicago
Garb blames the influx of immigrant workers in the 1880s for the spread of infectious diseases like yellow fever, diphtheria, typhoid, and smallpox in Chicago. Their arrival coincided with the development of unhealthy circumstances in the city's shantytowns. As time went on, the authorities began to see it as a social problem that the local government needed to address. It was argued that because Poles, Italians, and Bohemians were used to living in cramped quarters, it was impossible to enforce laws to stop their ingrained and inherited unsanitary lifestyles.
The Government's Response to Addressing the Problem
According to Koslow and Garb, the government saw it as their responsibility to address the problem and resorted to taking action to reduce the number of deaths brought on by communicable diseases. According to Garb, in 1876, Chicago Department of Health commissioner, Oscar Coleman De Wolf instituted mandatory health inspections in urban dwellings in an effort to control the spread of diseases. Builders and Landlords were required to spend more money on hygiene by providing their tenants with garbage containers. Other targeted areas included slaughterhouses and meat packing industries. Despite that the initiative attracted complaints, the government succeeded in enacting the poor residences hygiene policies. In 1880, the first housing ordinance was approved by the city council, giving health departments permission to inspect the sanitary conditions of residential buildings and workplaces. By 1887, city inspectors had begun visiting houses under construction for heating, lighting and plumbing and drainage arrangements. Homeowners were also required to comply with the policies. However, the ordinance translated to shortages of housing. According to Koslow, clean water sources from Lake Michagan was supplied to Chicago in 1863 as a way of controlling cholera spread.
The Housing Issue and Labor Movement
However, Garb asserts that the property owners transferred the maintenance costs to the tenants. In 1881, the Chicago Laborers engaged in a countrywide strike to force employers and landlords improve their wages to improve their housing conditions. The housing issue was now intertwined between labor press (regularly employment and the number of hours worked per day), working and housing conditions and wages.
Nugent's Perspective on Cholera and Disease Outbreaks in Chicago
Similar to Koslow and Garb, Nugent reiterates that Chicago was hit by cholera in the 19th century. However, he revisits the history of the municipal and reveals that the outbreaks were the main reason for the creation of Chicago Board of Health in 1835. Nugent also discloses issues that board encountered such as reduced funding by the city council with limited its activities. Similar to Garb, Nugent (2004) also recognizes that the residents of Chicago died from other contagious diseases such as whooping cough, small pox, bronchitis, pneumonia, tuberculosis, and diphtheria. He also suggests that tuberculosis was linked to the increased immigration from Europe at that time by Poles, Germans, and Swedes (immigrant culture). He specifies the places in which the outbreaks were common as opposed to Garb diseases were prevalent in the south, especially the 37th street. Nugent also notes how odors of animal putrefaction from slaughterhouses and the stagnant water of the North Branch of the Chicago River. Nonetheless, according to Nugent, cholera days ended in 1873 when the sewerage system became developed in the city.
The Economic Aspects of Home Ownership in Chicago
As opposed to other authors that speak about the outbreaks of diseases in tenements in Chicago, Steffens (2005) talks about the economic aspects of home ownership. More specifically, she illustrates how the emergence of cooperatives as the viable options for home ownership in Chicago after the First World War. According to her, cooperatives enabled the low and middle-income earners in Chicago to own home after housing shortage had stricken the city after the creation of ordinances requiring modernized construction to minimize congestion that triggered disease outbreaks.
Beliefs and Debates About Cholera and Tuberculosis
The source of cholera epidemics in the 19th century illuminates on the beliefs that the immigrants had come with diseases. Specifically, there was a presumption that Cholera in Europe and North America emerged in India. The source also asserts that cholera debates were based on industrial, urban, cultural and political life. As time passed, the European and American physicians concluded that the main cause of the disease was filth and decay in tenements, climate, and geography. However, some attributed it to people engaging in morally and physically intemperate behavior as well as those associated with various cultural practices. When Germ Theory was developed in the late 19th century, people began claiming that socio-environmental factors were the main causes of susceptibility. However, Contagion denotes that physicians did not believe that cholera was contagious at first until when John Snow demonstrated that contaminated drinking water could spread cholera in 1855 and Robert Koch proved that cholera was contagious in 1883.
In the source on Tuberculosis in Europe and North America, Contagion links tuberculosis with a large number of deaths in the 18th century. Specifically, 90% of urban populations got infected and out of those, 80% of the populations died from it in the 19th and 20th centuries in Europe and North America. As opposed to other authors, Contagion asserts that most people thought it was hereditary rather than a contagious disease. As the infection increased, the health officials began considering it as a sign of poverty. He recognizes the contribution of Robert Koch to the realization that the ailment was, in fact, contagious as opposed to the popular beliefs. The main approach to treatment at that time was sanatoria where patients were isolated from the rest of the community and subjected to serene and clean environments. People avoided sanatoria because of the long-term loneliness.
Multidimensional Approach to Analyzing the Issue
The multidimensional approach to the assessment of an issue provides an excellent overview of the knowledge about the issue. It allows for the collection of all relevant data and analysis to reveal the underlying information about the matter in question. More so, the multidimensional approach in the analysis of an issue allows for the evaluation of different sources of information to establish their credibility. With a variety of information, the quality of research improves and the resultant conclusions are more useful as opposed to analyzing on one dimension. Variables such as psychological, cultural, background, motivation, and social networks are easily brought to light as well. More so, the degree of cognition that each perspective has is easily established. Studying things, people, and events simultaneously rather than in isolation, leading to low contradictions when generalizing things and contexts and phenomena.
Works Cited
Garb, Margaret. "Health, morality, and housing: the “tenement problem” in Chicago." American journal of public health 93.9 (2003): 1420-1430.
Contagion. "Historical Views of diseases and Epidermics." Tuberculosis in Europe and North America, 1800–1922 : Harvad University library: open Collection Program: http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/contagion/tuberculosis.html.
Contagion Historical Views of Diseases and. "Cholera Epidemics in the 19th Century." Harvard University Library: open Collection Program n.d. Web.http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/contagion/cholera.html.
Koslow, Jenniffer. Public Health. 2005. Web. 22 June 2017.
Nugent, Walter. Epidemics. 2005. web. 23 June 2017.
Steffes, Tracy. Condominiums and Cooperatives. Encyclopedia of Chicago. 2005. Web. 23 June 2017.
