The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History Revised Edition

by John M. Barry (Author)

575 customer reviews

in Preventive Dentristry

ISBN-13: 978-0143036494

ISBN-10: 0143036491

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The definitive account of the 1918 Flu Epidemic. "Monumental"-Chicago Tribune.

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. John M. Barry has written a new afterword for this edition that brings us up to speed on the terrible threat of the avian flu and suggest ways in which we might head off another flu pandemic.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Monumental... powerfully intelligent... not just a masterful narrative... but also an authoritative and disturbing morality tale." —Chicago Tribune

"Easily our fullest, richest, most panoramic history of the subject." —The New York Times Book Review

"Hypnotizing, horrifying, energetic, lucid prose..." —Providence Observer

"A sobering account of the 1918 flu epidemic, compelling and timely. —The Boston Globe

"History brilliantly written... The Great Influenza is a masterpiece." —Baton Rouge Advocate

About the Author

John M. Barry is the author of four previous books: Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America; Power Plays: Politics, Football, and Other Blood Sports; The Transformed Cell: Unlocking the Mysteries of Cancer (cowritten with Steven Rosenberg); and The Ambition and the Power: A True Story of Washington. He lives in New Orleans and Washington, D.C.

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Product details

Paperback: 546 pages
Publisher: Penguin Books; Revised edition (October 4, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0143036491
ISBN-13: 978-0143036494
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1.2 x 8.4 inches
Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 575 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,829 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1 in Books > Medical Books > Dentistry > Preventive
- #1 in Books > Textbooks > Medicine & Health Sciences > Medicine > Clinical > Infectious Diseases
- #2 in Books > Textbooks > Medicine & Health Sciences > Medicine > Special Topics > History

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PabloR

It's Only The Flu

May 12, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

On February 25, 2016 my healthy 48 year old son died from the flu. This terrible event sent me in search of knowledge about the virus. The search led me to this book.

The book is well researched, yet the key element that makes the book readable is the narrative about the state of medical science, medical schools and their evolution at the start of the 20th century. Then the historical context is set up for the events that followed. There is also a detailed account of why the pandemic took such a toll on the world.

Every year we are told to get vaccinated against the flu. After reading this book and having lost my son to the flu, the book gave me a deeper understanding of the forces at work and why sometimes the outcome can be so deadly.

I highly recommend this book.

52 people found this helpful

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April 27, 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This book gave me far more than I ever wanted to know about the Great Influenza Epidemic of 1918-19. It begins in September of 1876 with the founding of the Johns Hopkins University, with its emphasis on medical research. It continues with the difficulty in getting doctors and educators to believe that there was a place for research in medicine at all. While this may be very interesting to many (including me) that is not the thing for which I had purchase this book. I kept waiting for the plague to begin and, sure enough, chapter 14 begins with the news that in February of 1918 someone from Haskell County Kansas most likely carried the disease to Camp Funston, a U.S. Army training camp located on Fort Riley, southwest of Manhattan, Kansas. It goes on to tell in great detail the difficulty of convincing the army, or most anyone in power, that it was killing people, even as it was doing exactly that.
The book is, my opinion, well written. There are so many characters, however, that I had to retrace my steps from time to time in order to refresh my memory of who was working to stop the spread and who was pushing hard to keep moving soldiers from place to place within America as well as abroad. It was primarily the troop movement that enabled the disease to become a world-wide pandemic.
I do not wish to discourage anyone from reading the book: it probably explains how a disease killed more than 21 million people before it ended in 1920, in a world population of less than one-third of what it is today, about as well as it can be explained.
If you should choose to read the book, just be prepared to decide how much medical history you wish to read. What is most discouraging is the fact that the American medical system isn't that much different in its unwillingness to accept change in the diagnosis and treatment of illness from the way it was then. Thankfully, research has prevailed, and science and technology have given us a great armament of knowledge and weapons with which to prevent and cure disease.

11 people found this helpful

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Philip McCarron

Everyone Should Read This Book

August 3, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

After reading this book, you'll consider your next sore throat, sneeze, or cough in an entirely different light. You'll think twice about ... everything. Mr. Barry offers insight, reflection, American medical history, politics, and other facts that reveal, in frightening detail, the deadliest plague to hit mankind in modern global history in a no-holds-barred, devastatingly accurate narrative that is both terrifying and incredibly informative. Don't know the evolution of medical science and research in America? You'll learn it here. Don't know who the major players in that field, from its problematic infancy to the present, were, and are? You'll learn it here. Don't know what a bacillus is? Don't know the difference between a bacteria and a virus? Don't know how the immune system works? You'll learn it -- and so much more -- here. Now throw in details about the biggest war ever known (WWI) at its time, that killed up to (or over) 2% of the world population -- military and civilian alike -- and add in an an initially annoying 'grippe' illness, that, again, sickened military and civilians alike with a gleeful, terrifying nonchalance that only wartime conditions could spread like a wildfire, hit in three waves, killed in the latter two of them ... well; you get the point. Up to (or over) 100 million people died from the 'Spanish Flu' between 1918 and 1920 (the lion's share in the Autumn of 1918), and most modern Americans don't even know it happened. The American Civil War killed some 630,000 men -- most people know that. In the Great Pandemic of 1918, some 700,000 Americans died. And most people DON'T know that. In fact, most don't even know it happened at all. And this was less than 100 years ago. IMHO, this book should be suggested reading in all American secondary schools, and mandatory reading in all medical schools. It is concise, detailed, comprehensive, and scary as hell. Mr. Barry turns medicalese into understandable English, describes the flu in uncompromising detail, and reflects on its impact and aftermath in thought-provoking discourse. And he also warns that -- for all our medical advances -- it could happen again. Everyone should read this book.

34 people found this helpful

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Duke

As a practicing physician this book chronicles the revolution in medicine in the early 20th century

December 21, 2017

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

John Barry has meticulously researched the information in this book. The Great Influenza killed millions worldwide, and at the time, no one had a clue as to what it was, how it was transmitted, how it killed, or how to stop it. In fact, the so-called doctors and researchers of the day didn't even know what a virus was. The respones to this plague by chemists, clinicians, researchers, doctors and medical facilities changed the course of medicine in this country from that of little more than witch doctors and shamans to what we now know as modern medicine and DNA. It is a brilliantly written book, and one which will scare the living daylights out of anyone who will read just how appalling the state of medicine and medical training was in the early 20th century.

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Amazon Customer

1918 Flu Pandemic

Massive amounts of research went into the writing of this book. The author takes you into the middle of the epidemic and into the minds of researchers across the US who worked...Read more

Published 22 hours ago

Laura

Great book, I read this during the flu season ...

Great book, I read this during the flu season of 2018. And these patients thought they had it rough!

Published 4 days ago

Joan C.

Five Stars

Excellent in every way.

Published 7 days ago

Pat comery

Not for those who are caring about the victims!

I really gave this book every chance to inform me about the flu epidemic of 1918, however, after 25% of the book I was still angrily fast forwarding to get beyond who and what and...Read more

Published 12 days ago

Piaw Na

Great book

I've really only had the 'flu a couple of times in my life, both times it's been one of those "knock you down and keep you in bed for 3 days" experience.Read more

Published 19 days ago

Amazon Customer

Best book on the subject

I have read several books on this subject, and this is the best. Well written and superbly researched!

Published 19 days ago

Lisa Ann

It's extremely readable, except for the fact that every ...

It's extremely readable, except for the fact that every other 5 pages sends me to Google to look up qusestions. (Example, how many people in Indiana died?Read more

Published 20 days ago

tsundra

Informative

Fascinating, well documented, easy to read, scary, timely, and extremely educational

Published 25 days ago

Kindle Customer

Illness Story

An extremely scary book. I read it because I wanted to know more about the pandemic, but I learned more than I wanted to know.Read more

Published 1 month ago

Derek Atkins

A Sober Examination of the Spanish Influenza

As someone who is interested in medical history, I bought this book because I wanted to learn more about this horrible, historic pandemic.Read more

Published 1 month ago

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