Saturday January 01, 2005 The Great Influenza
The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague In History - John M. Barry (2004)
*** 1/2 (out of 5)
In 1918, an influenza pandemic of terrible scope swept the globe. Over the next couple of years, as many as 100 million people would die of the 'Spanish flu', making it the 'deadliest plague in history'. Barry's book, The Great Influenza, chronicles the pandemic and its consequences.
The Great Influenza is much more than a simple chronology of the outbreak. The pandemic is described within the context of both political history - e.g. Barry attributes a fair amount of the blame for the severity of the outbreak to the policies the Wilson administration pursued as a result of World War I - and medical history - American medical research was coming into its own during this time period. Barry also provides an impressive amount of background information on subjects like microbiology and epidemiology to help readers understand the medical science described in the book.
This book is well-written and well-researched. Importantly, I felt that Barry did a good job of identifying when he was engaging in speculation. He almost certainly could have cut down on the bulk of material he presented in several sections, but prolixity is a vice that I am generally willing to forgive in an author. More seriously, the book provided a relative dearth of information about the reaction to the disease outside of the United States.
Overall, The Great Influenza is a book that I do not hesitate to recommend. I tend to enjoy non-fiction that inspires me to explore the presented topics further. This book certainly did so. In fact, I found the book's material on Oswald Avery so interesting that I have already started looking for more information about the man and his work.
( Jan 01 2005, 05:06:43 AM PST )
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