Buying Options

Print List Price:	$17.99
Kindle Price:	$12.99 Save $5.00 (28%)
Sold by:	Hachette Book Group Price set by seller.

Promotions apply when you purchase

Deliver to your Kindle Library

You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.

Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

There was an error. We were unable to process your subscription due to an error. Please refresh and try again.

Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World by [Laura Spinney]

Follow the Author

Laura Spinney

Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World Kindle Edition

by Laura Spinney (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

1,838 ratings

Editors' pick Best History

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$12.99

—

Audible Audiobook, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$0.00

Free with your Audible trial

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$29.94

$35.39

$5.13

Paperback, Illustrated

"Please retry"

$13.59

$10.99

$1.65

Audio CD, Audiobook, CD, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$26.09

$22.75

$12.00

Kindle
$12.99 Read with Our Free App
Audiobook
$0.00 Free with your Audible trial
Hardcover
$29.94

26 Used from $5.13 5 New from $35.39 1 Collectible from $31.01
Paperback
$13.59

70 Used from $1.65 29 New from $10.99
Audio CD
$26.09

3 Used from $12.00 2 New from $22.75

Great on Kindle

Great Experience. Great Value.

Enjoy a great reading experience when you buy the Kindle edition of this book. Learn more about Great on Kindle, available in select categories.

In 1918, the Italian-Americans of New York, the Yupik of Alaska, and the Persians of Mashed had almost nothing in common except for a virus -- one that triggered the worst pandemic of modern times and had a decisive effect on twentieth-century history.
The Spanish flu of 1918-1920 was one of the greatest human disasters of all time. It infected a third of the people on Earth -- from the poorest immigrants of New York City to the king of Spain, Franz Kafka, Mahatma Gandhi, and Woodrow Wilson. But despite a death toll of between 50 and 100 million people, it exists in our memory as an afterthought to World War I.
In this gripping narrative history, Laura Spinney traces the overlooked pandemic to reveal how the virus travelled across the globe, exposing mankind's vulnerability and putting our ingenuity to the test. As socially significant as both world wars, the Spanish flu dramatically disrupted -- and often permanently altered -- global politics, race relations and family structures, while spurring innovation in medicine, religion and the arts. It was partly responsible, Spinney argues, for pushing India to independence, South Africa to apartheid, and Switzerland to the brink of civil war. It also created the true "lost generation." Drawing on the latest research in history, virology, epidemiology, psychology and economics, Pale Rider masterfully recounts the little-known catastrophe that forever changed humanity.

Print length

354 pages
Language

English
Sticky notes

On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

PublicAffairs
Publication date

September 12, 2017
File size

15846 KB
Page Flip

Enabled
Word Wise

Enabled
Enhanced typesetting

Enabled
See all details

Due to its large file size, this book may take longer to download

John M. Barry
9,619
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $14.99
Hourly History
710
Kindle Edition
in 90-Minute Science & Math Short Reads
1 offer from $2.99
Catharine Arnold
938
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $11.99
Gina Kolata
796
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $12.99
Alfred W. Crosby
352
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $22.49
Katherine Anne Porter
609
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $9.99

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Impressive...Set against the devastating backdrop of global contagion, it is individual lives and deaths, discovered in letters, diaries, biographies and memoirs, that epitomize this rich account. Spinney invokes potent images...Along with exemplary research, Spinney's narrative is packed with fascinating, quirky detail...As the centenary of this monumental event approaches, other volumes on the pandemic will undoubtedly appear. Pale Rider sets the bar very high."―Nature

"A saga of tragedies and a detective story... Pale Rider is not just an excavation but a reimagining of the past. As the book progresses, the flu is cast increasingly as a character that crops up Zelig-like at important moments in history, altering the course of events previously unattributed to it.... Compelling."―The Guardian

"A book about the Spanish flu could so easily be dreary-complex pathology interwoven with pervasive tragedy. Not so Pale Rider. I've seldom had so much fun reading about people dying. Laura Spinney, a science journalist, is adept at explaining arcane scientific research in an entertaining, comprehensible way. ...With superb investigative skill and a delightfully light-hearted writing style, Spinney extends her analysis far beyond the relatively short duration of the plague....Spinney finds it odd that we know so little about the worst calamity to affect the human race. So do I. There are tens of thousands of books about the First World War, yet that flu is, arguable, more relevant to our world. While global war is, we hope, a thing of the past, global pestilence hovers like a vulture."―The Times

"Spinney argues that almost a century later, the Spanish flu is 'still emerging from the shadows of the First World War' in our collective memories. She sets out to rectify this, knowing just which medical mysteries and haunting vignettes will give the pandemic full purchase on our imaginations."―New York Times Book Review

"Wide-sweeping... Spinney is a storyteller with a science writer's cabinet of facts. Retracing influenza's death trail over nine continents, she attempts to show how the flu affected not only the war-torn West but also remote communities in South Africa, China, and Brazil. The book reveals how desperately and differently people reacted and how gravely the flu influenced the modern world, touching everything from medicine to business and from politics to poetry."―Science

"Influenza, like all viruses, is a parasite. Laura Spinney traces its long shadow over human history... Ms Spinney ties the virulence of Spanish flu to its genetic irregularities and does a good job of explaining containment strategies through epidemiology... In Europe and North America the first world war killed more than Spanish flu; everywhere else the reverse is true. Yet most narratives focus on the West... Ms Spinney's book goes some way to redress the balance."―The Economist

"Spinney's book is intensely readable, and instead of a strictly chronological account she circles around history, epidemiology and culture to give a panoramic portrait of the previous century's most deadly pandemic. We are probably due another one of these any day now, this is a great way to see what the future holds."―TheAwl

"A page turner that should easily satisfy armchair historians and epidemiologists and anybody who likes a good, if gruesome, yarn."―Foreign Policy

"A vividly recreated, grimly fascinating book...Coolly, crisply and with a consistently sharp eye for the telling anecdote...Spinney demonstrates how Spanish flu cast a long, dark shadow over the 20th century."―The Daily Mail

"One of the many strengths of Pale Rider is to show its readers the regional variations that combat took throughout the world, from Bristol Bay to Zamora to Unalaska Island... For all the tragedies and upheavals, the book portrays, Pale Rider actually paints an oddly hopeful picture of a population more sensitized to early warnings and largely more willing to heed them."―TheNational --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Laura Spinney is a science journalist and a literary novelist. She has published two novels in English, one historical, a story set in London’s East End in the 1930s called The Doctor, and the other a more contemporary tale about a soul trapped in limbo, called The Quick (both explore pathology and isolation in the modern European tradition). Her writing on science has appeared in National Geographic, Nature, The Economist and The Telegraph, among others. Born in the UK, she has also lived in France and Switzerland. Her oral history portrait of a European city, Rue Centrale, was published in 2013 by Editions L’Age d’Homme, in French and English. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01N22ZOHC
Publisher ‏ : ‎ PublicAffairs; 1st edition (September 12, 2017)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 12, 2017
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 15846 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 354 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1784702404

Best Sellers Rank: #119,951 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #12 in Communicable Diseases (Kindle Store)
- #27 in Medical History
- #60 in Viral Diseases (Books)

Customer Reviews:
1,838 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Laura Spinney

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5

1,838 global ratings

5 star		68%
4 star		20%
3 star		8%
2 star		2%
1 star		2%

How customer reviews and ratings work

Reviews with images

See all customer images

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Mal Warwick

A fascinating and sobering revisionist history based on contemporary research

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 5, 2018

Verified Purchase

If you're unfamiliar with the history of the Spanish Flu of 1918, or if your understanding of the pandemic is rooted in what you read many years ago, you may be unfamiliar with its tragic dimensions. British science journalist Laura Spinney sets us all straight in Pale Rider:The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World. "The Spanish flu infected one in three people on earth," she writes, "or 500 million human beings. Between the first case recorded on 4 March 1918, and the last sometime in March 1920, it killed 50-100 million people, or between 2.5 and 5 per cent of the global population." Erupting in three waves, the killer flu brought about social, political, and economic changes reminiscent of those of the Black Death nearly 600 years earlier. And its impact was global, whereas the Black Death brought disaster largely to Europe and Asia.

The Spanish Flu was, Spinney asserts, "the biggest disaster of the twentieth century." In all likelihood, the disease killed more than World Wars I and II combined. We Westerners may fail to recognize the pandemic's catastrophic scope because Europe and North America "reported the lowest death rates, on average, so their experiences were atypical." In India, for example, including present-day Pakistan and Bangladesh, "the rate was ten times that in America." Spinney reports that "an estimated 500,000 children were orphaned in South Africa alone," and as many as 18 million Indians died in the pandemic, about 6 per cent of its population. However, the author's emphasis is less on the sheer numbers of casualties than it is on the multiple effects on society at large. For instance, she believes that the flu helped push India closer toward independence (and of course explains her reasoning in detail). Her exploration of the long-term consequences is sobering.

It may be difficult for us today to grasp just how different the world was merely a century ago when the Spanish Flu broke out. Spinney reminds us that "life expectancy at birth in Europe and America did not exceed fifty, and in large parts of the globe it was much lower. Indians and Persians, for example, were lucky to celebrate their thirtieth birthdays." Science-based medicine was in its infancy even in the wealthiest countries. What today we call "alternative" therapies such as osteopathy or homeopathy were at least as likely to gain the trust of those who fell ill. In fact, physicians may have done as much harm as good, the Hippocratic Oath notwithstanding. Little wonder. "Viruses occupied only a tiny corner of the psychic universe of 1918. They hadn't been seen, and there was no test for them"—much less a vaccine or any effective treatment. To compound matters, other epidemic diseases were often raging simultaneously, including typhus and bubonic plague. In many areas, doctors were convinced the flu was the plague.

Spinney explains that the label "Spanish" flu is a misnomer. She traces the wide-ranging research into the true origins of the disease, identifying the leading candidates as the United States, China, and the Western Front in the European War. Her account wanders all over the globe, zeroing in on such far-flung communities as Odessa, Russia; Kimberley, South Africa; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Zamora, Spain; and Bristol Bay, Alaska. These accounts are deeply disturbing. As is the case in so many circumstances, the poor were the hardest hit everywhere. Spinney notes that "it was bad diet, crowded living conditions and poor access to healthcare that weakened the constitution, rendering the poor, immigrants and ethnic minorities more susceptible to disease." And those suffering from existing diseases were at the greatest risk.

Although Pale Rider is predominantly a work of history, and social history in particular, Spinney does delve into the scientific aspects of the pandemic. She explains the historical origins of influenza, the centuries-long efforts to understand it, and the development of vaccines beginning in the 1930s—too late, of course, to help those who fell to the Spanish Flu. However, as you're no doubt aware, the ability of scientists to produce flu vaccines on an annual basis is no guarantee that another pandemic of similar scope won't happen next year. There are simply too many varieties of influenza, and at least two strains influenza type A—H1N1, which was the basis of the Spanish Flu, and H5N1—have the potential to break out at any time in the future. And H5N1 kills some 60 per cent of the people it infects. We can only hope that an effective vaccine can be designed and manufactured in time and that today's greater understanding of public health requirements will keep the death rate in check.

My only complaint about Pale Rider is that the book is structured in a way that requires some degree of repetition. Since it's not arranged in chronological order or divided into neat categories, the book can be confusing. Spinney writes in circles. I got dizzy. But the problem is minor in the context of such an informative and well-written account.

174 people found this helpful

Helpful

lisaleo (Lisa Yount)

everyone should read this book!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 1, 2020

Verified Purchase

I bought this book and started reading it in mid-March 2020, just as it was becoming clear that the coronavirus pandemic was becoming a Very Big Deal, because the 1918 “Spanish” flu pandemic (Spinney explains that wherever the pandemic started, it wasn’t Spain) was the only one I knew of that affected the U.S. and other industrialized countries and occurred in what could—very loosely—be called modern times, and I wanted to have some idea of what might be in store. I can recommend this book, at least as a starting place, to anyone who feels the same… and I’m sure there are many.

It's important to keep in mind that the virus that caused the 1918 pandemic is NOT the same as the one that causes COVID-19, or even closely related, and—probably even more important—that pandemic, even in industrialized countries, did NOT take place in anything like the society that exists now. For instance, in the America of 1918, cars were still new; the germ theory was still new (and doubtful) to a lot of people, including a fair number of doctors; there were no antibiotics (which might at least have stopped some of the pneumonia complications), let alone antiviral drugs; the concept of “virus” (meaning an unknown microorganism too small to be seen with optical microscopes or stopped by filters that removed bacteria) existed, but nobody knew exactly what they were, let alone had ever seen one; travel from one part of the world to another was less common and less easy, but massive movement of troops involved in World War I provided a very significant exception; the world population was a lot smaller; and the world, especially Europe, was just finishing a major war (which ended just as the flu epidemic reached its height), with all the preexisting disruption, shortages, poverty etc. that that implies. Nonetheless, the cause of the pandemic was a respiratory virus, spread in the same way as the present one; it spread worldwide, even to remote areas, very quickly; it killed only a small percentage of the people who caught it; and its reign lasted only about a year, but it still created a lot of tragedies and major social disruption.

Spinney’s book provides a good overview of the pandemic, including discussions of its possible origin (one of the three countries suggested by the incomplete evidence available is the United States) and its known and possible long-term effects. It is not overly technical, and it focuses primarily on the social rather than the medical aspects of the disaster. It certainly offers a lot to think about in relation to the current crisis.

Spinney’s brief views of the epidemic’s effects in a variety of places, including a village in China and a city in Spain, are a good reminder that the pandemic was worldwide and that its effects and people’s responses to it were strongly shaped by their different cultures. However, the book failed to do one of the chief things I was hoping it would accomplish, which was to provide details of people’s reactions and their effects on the course of the pandemic in the United States. (I did learn that not only the concept but the term “social distancing” already existed in 1918, which I would never have guessed. The concept of quarantine is much older, of course; even some animals practice it instinctively.) I have just bought another book on the pandemic, America’s Forgotten Pandemic by Alfred W. Crosby, that promises to do that.

19 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Autolycus

Can't recommend this book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 30, 2018

Verified Purchase

Disappointing - jumped about a lot and contained a lot of anecdotal and irrelevant material. My wife's grandmother talked about people turning black and dying suddenly with Spanish Flu, and given the enormity of the pandemic, I though that here was an opportunity to understand more about it. I was therefore very disappointed to find virtually no medical explanations or precise statistics. There were passages where is was said 10 million people died in this country - but it might have been three times or even five times that - or it might have been less. It's hard to categorise the book - at best it was a light read, and it felt the equivalent of tabloid gossip in terms of sensationalist detail. It generally lacked cohesion, and if in my academic career it had been presented to me by an undergraduate as a first draft of a thesis, I would have been highly critical of it - it just lacked any degree of academic rigour. The subject is deserving of a more accomplished and detailed treatment.

94 people found this helpful

mariana

Pandemics

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 25, 2020

Verified Purchase

I’ve only just got round to reading this after a house move and family illness and bereavement got in the way. It’s meticulously well researched and explains the scientific ideas that drove policy. It’s particularly pertinent today with the Covid-19 pandemic. A draconian response is needed but this book explains what happens with dithering and flouting of edicts. It does not linger on tales of Granny coughing up her lungs and the colour of her sputum. If that’s what you want watch a horror movie.

33 people found this helpful

Mark Pack

A great and highly accessible guide to one of the twentieth century's greatest tragedies

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 13, 2020

Verified Purchase

A virus spreading around the world, aided by international travel. Difficulties getting people to follow social distancing. Debates and disagreement over the health impact of wearing facemasks. Controversies over whether or not schools should be closed. Inadequate public health information for ethnic minority communities. The origins of Donald Trump's wealth.

No, this isn't a review of a book about 2020, it's a review of a book on the misnamed Spanish flu of the early twentieth century. Long treated as a historical quirk - that mostly forgotten thing which killed more people than the First World War - the global pandemic has become rather more newsworthy since we've faced a similar challenge a century on.

Many of the parallels between then and now are striking, though the one big difference - the huge advances in medical science and in public health expertise - make the outcome mercifully different.

Laura Spinney's Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World is a great and highly accessible guide to one of the twentieth century's greatest tragedies.

It is not a detailed academic study. Statistics, for example, are frequently only mentioned in passing, with little detailed analysis presented to back them up or put them in context. The endnotes are fairly briefly for the amount of information presented in the book and there is no bibliography. That said, the book has a good reputation and it looks as if the evidence presented is robust; it's just presented in a popular style which means you often have to take that on trust. Rather than taking the form of an academic study, the book takes the form of a (very) long read piece of journalism, which makes sense as the author is a science journalist.

The sheer volume of information - and the size of the numbers involved - make the book a little overwhelming at times. It's easy to end up grazing through several pages without quite taking in what they really mean. But that's as much on the reader as the author.

Pale Rider ranges widely over history, with many digressions into earlier outbreaks and medical history. There are even a couple of paragraphs on how animals use social distancing from their brethren to protect against diseases

Read it and you'll also find out why 'the Spanish flu' got that inaccurate name.

19 people found this helpful

Mark Fitz

Spanish flu & its links to Donald Trump

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 26, 2019

Verified Purchase

After a recent bout of "manflu" I was interested to find out more of the disease. Like many others I'd heard of the Spanish flu pandemic, but hadn't too much knowledge of it's true scale, and the extent of it's reach.
This book provides great detail of the outbreak, and how it shaped world events. Without the outbreak, there would probably have been no President Trump. If you're interested in that point, I suggest you read this book
After my man flu, I got myself vaccinated. Yes, I know, horse & stable door!

14 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

The Tragedy of Spanish "Flu

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 6, 2018

Verified Purchase

Pale Rider is an excellent and readable account of the pandemic that swept the world in 1918 and caused the deaths of so many millions of people. From start to finish the book presents its arguments clearly and concisely and leaves the reader in no doubt of the great tragedy that was Spanish 'Flu. It also warns that there is another event due and perhaps we are just about as unprepared for it as was the global population in 1918.

Buying Options

Buy for others

Buying and sending eBooks to others

Follow the Author

Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World Kindle Edition

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Editorial Reviews

Review

About the Author

Product details

Videos

About the author

Laura Spinney

Customer reviews

Reviews with images

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries