The Great Influenza: The story of the deadliest pandemic in history
by John M. Barry
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Book Summary Information
Author: John M. BarryEdition: Paperback
Published: 2005-10-04
ISBN: 0143036491
Number of pages: 546
Publisher: Penguin Books
Book Reviews of The Great Influenza: The story of the deadliest pandemic in history
Book Review: Great history of medicine and the early 20th Century
Summary: 4 Stars
Although I purchased this book a couple of years ago, I hadn't gotten to it until just now. I moved it to the top of my To Read list after finishing The Last Town on Earth, which is a fictionalized account of the 1918 flu. I wasn't expecting the detailed history of how our medical profession modernized, and the history of the origins of Johns Hopkins, although I was pleasantly surprised to find it here. I also found the general policies instituted by the Wilson administration, utterly suppressing free speech and any discord about the war very interesting. The only problem I had with the book was excessive repetiveness -- sometimes I wondered if I were somehow re-reading a page I had read before, as descriptions or quotations were restated verbatim in several parts of the book. There were also excessive descriptions of similar events in different towns that didn't truly add to the book's point -- the impact and experience of the 1918 flu. Certain parts were reminiscent of The Coming Plague (another book which I highly recommend), and if you enjoyed that book, you will enjoy this one as well. I am very glad to have the knowledge gained by reading this book, and the only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 was the repetiveness of many of its points -- the book could have easily been 100 pages shorter with some good editing.
Summary of The Great Influenza: The story of the deadliest pandemic in history
At the height of WWI, history?s most lethal influenza virus erupted in an army camp in Kansas, moved east with American troops, then exploded, killing as many as 100 million people worldwide. It killed more people in twenty-four months than AIDS killed in twenty-four years, more in a year than the Black Death killed in a century. But this was not the Middle Ages, and 1918 marked the first collision of science and epidemic disease. Magisterial in its breadth of perspective and depth of research and now revised to reflect the growing danger of the avian flu, The Great Influenza is ultimately a tale of triumph amid tragedy, which provides us with a precise and sobering model as we confront the epidemics looming on our own horizon.General Books
- History > Americas > United States > 20th Century
- General
- World > 20th Century
- Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Sociology > General
- Medicine > Special Topics > History
- Specialties > Preventive Medicine
- Internal Medicine > Infectious Disease > Communicable Diseases
- Professional & Technical > Medical > Medicine > Internal Medicine > Infectious Disease > Communicable Diseases
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