The Plague of the Spanish Lady: The Influenza Panademic of 1918-1919 [Paperback]

Richard Collier (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1996

During the three months from October 1918 to January 1919 more than 20 million people died of Spanish flu throughout the world. The author of this history sets out to present the disease in terms of human experience, based on the memories of more than 1700 survivors.

Product Details

• Paperback: 376 pages
• Publisher: Allison & Busby (November 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0749002468
• ISBN-13: 978-0749002466
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,043,443 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous Historical Narrative, April 12, 2000

By 

Nikki Eng - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Plague of the Spanish Lady: The Influenza Panademic of 1918-1919 (Paperback)

Collier's work is one of the finest examples of what good historical narrative can be. He uses historical information to write history in an engaging and interesting manner. Collier's work is one of the definitive works on the Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919. Critics of this book will probably say the same things critics of Herodotus said. Collier does lack statistics, numbers and charts that people have come to associate with history, but makes up for it in his narrative.

This is a superb companion to Alfred Crosby's work on the Influenza Pandemic. Collier's focus is more global and excludes the American experience while Crosby focuses almost solely on the American experience. Collier writes in the style of Herodotus while Crosby's leanings are more to a Thucydidian style of writing. One of the two books is bound to appeal to almost everybody. Reading both books, though, gives one a more comprehensive view of the event.

If academic history is not to your taste, read Iezzoni or Kolata's work on the subject. They borrow heavily from Collier and Crosby, but write with a more public audience in mind.

12 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars a jumble of disorganized anecdotes, January 14, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Plague of the Spanish Lady: The Influenza Panademic of 1918-1919 (Paperback)

this is a book that both benefits and suffers from extensive research. It is entirely undigested and frequently wrong on the facts. While the writing is good during the telling of each anecdote, the failure to develop any characters or for that matter a plot quickly makes reading tedious. A shame, because there is a lot of first-rate raw material here. The author just doesn't evaluate it critically, or tie any of it together.