“Disease of the Land”: Valley Fever in the World War II West

Abstract This article examines the history of valley fever, or coccidioidomycosis, during World War II. Caused by a microscopic fungus found in the soil of the Southwest, this disease afflicted many wartime migrants in the American West. African American servicemen stationed in California and Japanese Americans imprisoned in Arizona were particularly susceptible to infection. Wartime mobilization precipitated environmental transformations and racial policies that increased their exposure to the hazardous dust. They soon came to embody the nation’s militarization and the racial inequities embedded therein. Ultimately, their encounters with valley fever intensified their vulnerability and laid bare the racial contradictions of the war.