Customer Reviews

America's Forgotten Pandemic: The Influenza of 1918

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Sit down, and allow me to scare you for a moment. Imagine that the world is gripped in the throes of the lengthy stalemate of a senseless war that has depleted Europe of most of its young men and resources, and those that remain are destitute, dispirited, starving, and suffering from the lost of loved ones. In the midst of this war, a formerly rather innocuous disease suddenly mutates into a new killer strain which infects all corners of the globe, from Alaska to Africa, within a matter of weeks. This new disease is not only remarkably contagious, but it is so lethal and destroys so many lives in such a short time-frame that even the ghastly global war pales in comparison. Even the greatest medical minds of the time have little idea (or worse, wrong ideas) as to how to prevent or treat the disease and what may be causing it. The disease makes little discrimination with regard to class, race, nationality, or gender, killing all with an unforgiving ferocity. Perhaps the strangest characteristic of this new, invisible killer, is that it seems to especially target people in the prime of their lives, wiping them out at a rate far disproportionate to that seen in the "traditional" victims of disease, people with inexperienced or compromised immune systems, such as the very young and the very old.

The scariest aspect of this tale is that it is not fiction. It has already happened, and scientists not only foresee the repeat of such an apocalyptic scourge as possible, but they express surprise that it hasn't already repeated its destruction... yet. This nightmarish ordeal I allude to is the worldwide "Spanish" (which, curiously, probably first appeared in the US) Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919 at the conclusion of WWI, and is covered in a most comprehensive fashion in Alfred Crosby's "America's Forgotten Pandemic: The Influenza of 1918".

Crosby goes into considerable detail (perhaps too much at times) about the origins, course, and record of devastation left by the pandemic ("pandemic" referring to global epidemic). He discusses the effects of the flu upon America's effort to send troops to the Western Front (bases where troops were trained and ships which carried troops across the Atlantic turned out to be "hothouses" for foment and spread of the disease) and the effects upon troops and their actions once at the front. As Crosby convincingly posits, the pandemic may have "helped" to end the fighting and, interestingly, its effects upon the health of political leaders such as Woodrow Wilson and Clemenceau may have had a drastically damaging impact on settlements at the end of "the war to end all wars". Crosby also effectively explains how the nature of the influenza -- an invisible and intransigent virus sweeping in without warning, rapidly and indiscriminately killing its defenseless victims, and then, almost as rapidly, disappearing into quiescence -- may have led to making it a horror of surprisingly little lasting impact upon the consciousness and fears of the world, especially when juxtaposed against the world war dominating the headlines. Hence, "America's forgotten pandemic".

Crosby writes in an engaging, readable manner and though he has clearly done his homework and really knows his stuff, he thankfully avoids the common pitfall of scientific books of this type: beating the reader over the head with one's erudition and coming across as a condescending pedant presenting a book laden with technical indecipherables and obscurations. So, why a 7 and not a 10? Well, the people who would gain the most from the work -- budding biology research scientists and health practitioners -- will (and rightfully should) ignore whatever value I assign to the tome and will likely find the book quite inspirational to their own efforts. Nevertheless, the book is more of a scientific document and not a narrative per se, and therefore tends to lend itself more to pages of statistical detail than a more "human" reflection of the pandemic. Other works, most notably Katharine Anne Porter's "Pale Horse, Pale Rider", may give the general reader a better individual perspective of the pandemic and its effects upon the thoughts, emotions, and lives of Americans. That said, Crosby's work is well worth reading as THE complete account of one of the most deadly phenomena that has plagued mankind (tasteless pun, to my regret, intended).

I spent 2.5 years studying the flu and the havoc it wrought on Philadelphia, and Mr. Crosby's book was always within reach. It is one of the best sources one will find when studying the flu. Some may complain that it lacks a certain depth, agreed. But that's not what Mr. Crosby set out to do. He wanted to document this forgotten period in American History in a book that was both readable and not impossible to finish in under a decade. As far as his sources go, I feel he did a good job. I search the city high and low and came up with maybe a few items that Mr. Crosby did not. Overall, if you want to read a well researched and well written book, buy "America's Forgotten Pandemic."

Without a doubt this is an excellent, provocative, and thoughtful book. In and of itself I'd give it 5 stars... But that would make it impossible to rate John Barry's The Great Influenza higher. Of course Barry's book came out 25 years after Crosby's, and to some extent is derivative. But it goes so far beyond Crosby, and adds so much context about scientists, the virus itself, and politics, there is unfortunately no reason to read Crosby any more. Actually that's wrong-- there is a reason. If you wnat tables and statistics, Crosby includes them. Barry does not. Although Barry's book does read better, and has a real narrative flow and scientist-characters.

Between Alfred Crosby and Richard Collier, these two men have written the definitive works on the Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1918. Subsequent writers like Iezzoni and Kolata heavily use the primary reseach done by both Crosby and Collier.

Crosby's work does, to some degree, lack eloquent narrative, but it is a superbly researched book on the pandemic. Crosby sticks to the facts and statistics and has achieved a work that is well written history. I would recommend reading Richard Collier's work in conjunction with this work to get the full impact of the pandemic. Crosby focuses on the pandemic's impact in America while Collier focuses on the more global experience. While Collier may have a better flowing narrative, Crosby includes all of the hard statistics which lends a different, more concrete feeling to the subject matter. Overall, if Crosby's work is the left shoe, Collier's is the right shoe. You can read one without the other, but, why would you want to?

Why did the Spanish flu kill 25 million people worldwide? Why did it kill those in the prime of life more efficiently than the usual flu victims, the very young or the very old? Where did it go after its nine month run through the world in 1918-1919? Can it strike again? Why has it been largely forgotten by historians? Engaging questions all, and Alfred Crosby asks them and to a greater or lesser extent seeks to answer them. Still, this book is less than it could be, written for too much of its length as if he were keeping his narrative powers deliberately in check. For those that doubt he is capable of powerful writing, the last chapter stands as rebuttal, with its tribute to Katherine Anne Porter -- to whom the book is dedicated -- and an adult's recollection of how the flu brought home at age seven the early realization that "life was not a perpetual present, and that even tomorrow would be part of the past, and that for all my days and years to come I too must one day die." I'd like to have seen more of those personal close-ups of the impact of the flu instead of the grim numbers in Philadelphia, then the grim numbers in San Francisco, then the grim numbers in Alaska. It is as if Crosby wanted to write a history of the era as it was lived with the flu and wound up writing a journal of morbidity and mortality, and the virus sleuthing that followed. He aimed for a vision and achieved a laboratory slide -- no mean accomplishment, but not, I think, what we or he were finally after.

This book is well-researched, and has pulled together, in narrative and tabular form, the disparate data and details of the influenza pandemic of 1918. Although the timelines move back and forth through the narrative, the evolution of epidemiology and research chronicled in the book is fascinating. The hair-raising depiction of widespread illness and resulting deaths during the pandemic paint a far different picture than is discussed in epidemiology or history courses. Extrapolating events from 1918 (and other pandemics) to current events with Avian influenza makes for sobering and thought-provoking consideration of worldwide pandemic preparedness, or lack thereof.

This is by far the best book on the subject so far, and it's really quite good. But some of the research is a little superficial (for example, nearly all the material on Philadelphia, the hardest hit city in the country, comes from a single newspaper, when at least 7 or 8 were being published at the time).

Like another reviewer here, I'd say that unless you're looking for tables and statistics, you should get "The Great Influenza" by John Barry instead of this book. Also like that reviewer, this is not a knock on Crosby at all, but a tribute to Barry. Barry's book really is an incredible work by any standard. Compared to Crosby, it is simply richer and deeper, whether the 2 writers are addressing the same thing-- for example, both focused on Philadelphia, possibly the hardest hit city in the country-- or in the way Barry explains things that Crosby never addresses at all-- such as the political and scientific context, how viruses behave, immunology. Yet you certainly won't be disappointed if you buy this book and you're interested in the subject.

One thing you should NOT do is get any of the other books on influenza. Most of them are outright crap. None of the other books can compete with Crosby's, not to mention Barry's.

I wish this book had been written by more of a drama queen. It's more of an epidemiological survey when I wanted at least a couple horsemen of the apocalypse. I became interested in the influenza pandemic because of Malcolm Gladwell's article, "The Dead Zone" in the September 29, 1997 issue of The New Yorker. I'd hoped this book could flesh out the details, but it was more dry stats than I wanted. Someone looking for a sweeping historical survey of the flu and it's effects won't find it here.

Crosby's classic study of the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic-- while recently supplemented by John M. Barry's excellent new book THE GREAT INFLUENZA and Gina Kolatta's FLU-- remains the Source Authority for all serious students of this devastating killer virus.

While researching FINAL EPIDEMIC, my own novel of the re-emergence of the Spanish flu of 1918, Crosby's book was a goldmine of information... and a primary reason why I spent so many sleepless nights during the time I was writing on the subject.

Crosby's book is, without doubt, the classic study of the H1N1 killer flu virus and ranks among the best of medical non-fiction narrative around.

Frighteningly, killer flu and the possibility of a lethal pandemic is again a timely subject.

A startling fact about the original 1918 plague that devastated humanity --notable, since it occurred within the lifespan of many still alive today-- is the collective amnesia that so often surrounds that event.

Few Americans realize that it's extremely probable that they have a family member only a generation or two ago who fell prey to the deadly Spanish Flu pandemic; tales of when the cry "bring out your dead!" echoed along American streets were seldom passed from those who witnessed it to those of us who descended from the survivors. It takes a trip to virtually any cemetery to bring the death toll home to us, as marker after marker identifies the victims of the 1918 flu pandemic. Worldwide, deaths in 1918-1919 totalled at least 40 million humans, and very likely as many as 100 million-- all within a timespan measured in months.

As I write this, an avian influenza virus not unlike that which triggered the 1918 pandemic, if forcing the mass slaughter of chickens and other birds throughout Asia. It is an attempt to forestall the very real possibility that the virus (which already has infected human victims through bird-to-human transmission, and currently has a 70 percent mortality rate among human victims) could acquire genes which would allow for human-to-human transmission.

During research for FINAL EPIDEMIC, I interviewed dozens of medical researchers and epidemeologists. Without exception, each stated that their greatest fear was a resurgence of a influenza virus similar to the 1918 variant, which through incubation in humans mutated into a unprecedented killer of humanity. Based on the cyclic nature of flu pandemics, I was told, mankind was already overdue-- and, worse: woefully unprepared-- for such an emerging viral Shiva.

Influenza was, and remains, a universal threat: As Crosby wrote in "America's Forgotten Pandemic," "I know how not to get AIDS. I don't know how not to get the flu."

--Earl Merkel
Author, FINAL EPIDEMIC (PenguinPutnam 2002)
and DIRTY FIRE (PenguinPutnam 2003)