The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History

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The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History

3.92 of 5 stars 3.92 · rating details · 7,400 ratings · 815 reviews

No disease the world has ever known even remotely resembles the great influenza epidemic of 1918. Presumed to have begun when sick farm animals infected soldiers in Kansas, spreading and mutating into a lethal strain as troops carried it to Europe, it exploded across the world with unequaled ferocity and speed. It killed more people in twenty weeks than AIDS has killed in...more

Hardcover, 560 pages

Published February 9th 2004 by Viking Adult

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Nov 08, 2007 Stephen rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am really surprised at the number of positive reviews this book got, both professional and consumer. I am currently a little more than halfway through and feel the need to write something in case I don't finish it and lose the desire.

Before critiquing Barry and his writing style, or lack thereof, his editor, Wendy Wolf deserves special mention. This is the first book I have ever read in which I have made special note of the editor and will refuse to read anything she works on in the future. I...more I am really surprised at the number of positive reviews this book got, both professional and consumer. I am currently a little more than halfway through and feel the need to write something in case I don't finish it and lose the desire.

Before critiquing Barry and his writing style, or lack thereof, his editor, Wendy Wolf deserves special mention. This is the first book I have ever read in which I have made special note of the editor and will refuse to read anything she works on in the future. I was sorely tempted to tally the number of repetitions of key phrases, pieces of information and entire narrative sequences. Perhaps editing this book was too daunting a task to do it well and still preserve the intent and message, but if so, I would have quit. Wendy gets 1 star.

Before she edited it though, he wrote it. As I understand it, the 1918 Influenza outbreak, with its undercurrents of concurrent revolutions in medical science, oppressive (and at times seemingly unconstitutional) governmental policy, sheer human agony, and internationality, is replete with its own inherent drama. No additional tear-jerkers are necessary - the reporting of how 50 million people died worldwide would be plenty. Barry decides that manufactured melodrama is the most effective vehicle to convey this, however. How can one assume how people felt during a worldwide pandemic? After assuming it, how can one essentially write fiction in a non-fiction book as it is described?

In addition to his atrocious writing style, Barry seems to thread 3 or 4 books into one, and doesn't even separate them with definitive breaks in his book. In a text which is nominally about an historical event, we read biographical sketches of several men who weren't even involved in fighting the disease.

I recommend this to no one. Read the wikipedia article on '1918 Influenza'. It's probably far less annoying.

UPDATE: After getting through 300 out of 460 pages of this poorly organized, melodramatic, poor excuse for historiography, I realized I was not only wasting my time reading it, but I was also wasting my time complaining about it to my friends and family. Thats a TRIPLE waste of time. Barry is not worth this investment. I caution every one of you. Unless you want to boost your self esteem and have a John Irving moment of "Wow, I could seriously do way better than this... and this guy got published!" DO NOT READ THIS BOOK. I hope you read this, Barry, and send me an apology.

I've never written a review this bitter. Mostly because I've never been this bitter about a book.(less)

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Oct 18, 2007 Dave rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history

This book had promise, and is good in spots - but the overall product suffers greatly from lack of direction and editorial control. If I could rate the best third of the book, I would give it five stars. The other two thirds of the book suffers substantially from a lack of focus, inclusion of unnecessary information, and overly dramatic narrative. And, to add insult to injury, the footnotes are handled in such a fashion that they become nearly useless.

In the afterword, it becomes quite obvious t...more This book had promise, and is good in spots - but the overall product suffers greatly from lack of direction and editorial control. If I could rate the best third of the book, I would give it five stars. The other two thirds of the book suffers substantially from a lack of focus, inclusion of unnecessary information, and overly dramatic narrative. And, to add insult to injury, the footnotes are handled in such a fashion that they become nearly useless.

In the afterword, it becomes quite obvious that the author made a bad assumption at the start of his endeavor. After spending seven years researching the book, he concluded that he could not tell the story of the epidemic without covering the history medical science leading up until that time. He also wanted to write the book from the perspective of the scientists and politicians who reacted to the influenza outbreak; he seemed more interested in covering their actions than the virus itself.

These assumptions are incorrect. The most interesting and relevant portion of the book is the history of the virus itself. If Barry had simply explained how the virus worked, how it may have come into being, and then followed each wave of the epidemic in chronological order, this book would have been much more enjoyable and much shorter. Instead, he covers material which is not relevant - and by focusing on this material he breaks up his coverage of the virus, thereby rendering the best part of the book less enjoyable.

The first third of the book is dedicated to the history of modern medical science. Some of the material is of interest, but this history is not necessary for any discussion of the influenza virus. It has absolutely no impact on the remainder of the book. The reader could simply skip the first 30% of the book and would not notice it. I actually found this information to be interesting, that that does not warrant their inclusion in a 450 page book with a supposed focus on the 1918 epidemic.

The second portion of the book is the most direct discussion of the virus in the book, and it is quite good. Barry provides a brief explanation of how the virus works and why it is so successful. He then discusses the impact of the disease, rivaling any horror story while doing so. The amount of chaos and suffering caused by the outbreak is quite sobering.

During this time, Barry also discusses the prevailing political climate. As this outbreak occurred during WWI. President Wilson's desire to turn the entire country into a weapon required news of the virus to be controlled rather tightly. This was exacerbated by a good deal of corruption at lower levels of government. The result was a climate in which misinformation and inaction killed tens of thousands of Americans. This material is entirely relevant, and I actually might have liked for him to focus more on it.

The last portion of the book covers the scientific community's attempts to control the virus. This is really a misguided effort, as there is no significant discovery to work towards. While the scientists Barry introduces the reader to are all very accomplished, none of them are able to make any headway with their influenza work. The book becomes a spastic collection of various experiments carried out by a handful of scientists. The text is hard to follow as it is all over the map, and after you finish it you realized that the last third of the book is about as relevant as the first third, only less interesting. It is almost comical; one of the scientists he covers during the entire book is Paul Lewis. Towards the end of the book, after discussing Paul Lewis' troubled family life ad nauseam, and filling the reader in on all sorts of work Lewis did with tuberculosis (which had no impact on any influenza research), Barry goes on to tell us how Lewis died while working with the yellow fever in Brazil. So essentially, any mention of Paul Lewis in the book was completely superfluous.(less)

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May 29, 2007 Joel rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Like a poorly crafted pop song, this book is full of occasional flashes of intelligence and brilliance, but is brought down to the level of the two star by it's repetitive nature and bogged down by details.

Okay, the metaphor doesn't really work with the "bogged down by details" part, but other than that, it's apt.

In attempts to create a rhythm, and strike a melodic note with his writing, Barry uses phrases he thinks are poignant to the point of annoyance. It's honestly like that Debbie Gibson s...more

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Jul 14, 2009 Lizzy added it · review of another edition

This review was written by Liz Roland and posted by Lizzy Mottern.

This substantial book that exhaustively researched ( 60 pages of notes and bibliography) reads like a massive thriller, compelling the reader forward to find a vaccine/cure for this deadly, ever-mutating virus that killed more people in late 1918 and early 1919 than the plagues of the Middle Ages killed in a century. In the U.S., nearly seven times as many people died of this virus as died in World War I.

John Barry, an award-winni...more

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Feb 13, 2013 Mike rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Overall this was a very good book. Expansive, thorough, and at times utterly fascinating. I'm sure people around me are completely sick of me talking about the flu at this point but this is that kind of book that will do that to you. It falls short of getting five stars for a couple of reasons, some of which are about the book but most of which are about me as a reader:

1. It's almost too expansive: In Barry's quest to explore every possible nook and cranny of the 1918 Influenza pandemic he leave...more Overall this was a very good book. Expansive, thorough, and at times utterly fascinating. I'm sure people around me are completely sick of me talking about the flu at this point but this is that kind of book that will do that to you. It falls short of getting five stars for a couple of reasons, some of which are about the book but most of which are about me as a reader:

1. It's almost too expansive: In Barry's quest to explore every possible nook and cranny of the 1918 Influenza pandemic he leaves no scientific idea or historical actor unearthed and thoroughly discussed. This lends to a skater shot feel to the book as you lurch from one person to another in chronological order with whole chapters about the science of viruses and bacteria popping up here and there to interrupt the forward momentum of the story. I feel like I got a about a dozen very short, somewhat shallow, biographies in this one book and a bit more science that I really wanted.

2. Lack of a supporting personal story or strong main character: When I contrast this book with Steven Johnson's "Ghost Map", which is all about John Snow and how he dealt with a cholera outbreak in London in the 19th Century, I find that it didn't hold my attention all the time because I didn't really connect with any of the people in the book or feel like there was a broad narrative that was pulling me along. Sure, he does a good job of showing how the pandemic began, how it peaks, and how it ebbs but the pandemic is far too amorphous for me to really relate to. And while he clearly shows how many of the people in the book react at these different phases I didn't really feel like I got to know any of them with the kind of detail that Johnson pulled out of John Snow.

3. Hey, you got your science book in my history book! No, you got your history book in my science book! Wow, they're two great genres that kind of make for a confusing mess when you put them all together: Okay, this gripe is all about me as a reader. I'm WAY more interested in history and politics than science. Unless the science is about robots, zombies, or space ships at a certain point I kind of just zone out. Barry, at times, gets super deep on the science of influenza explaining in great detail how it infects the body and causes no end of problems. While it is a great feat of writing to talk about that sort of thing without losing the reader (to his credit it was never confusing) it doesn't make for a compelling read for me. When Barry talks about history in this book it's completely riveting, I literally couldn't put it down, but then there would be a speed bump science chapter and I'd have to slog through it to get back to the ideas that were the most interesting to me. It made for a frustrating read at times.

Over all I would highly recommend this book. It really was quite good, my gripes aside. And, frankly, the historical implications of the book make it worth the read alone (namely that at a crucial junction in the negotiation of the Treaty of Versailles at the end of World War I Pres. Wilson came down with the flu and it, for a bunch of reasons, left him possibly permanently mentally impaired - he believed from that point on that French spies had infiltrated the White House for example - is shocking. Given that that treaty is often held directly responsible for the rise of Nazi Germany, and World War II, and that the principle features of that treaty may have caused the rise of the Nazi's were almost all pushed by the French and opposed by Pres. Wison, until his bought with the flu that is, one is left believing if not for the flu the world could have been very different). If you like science and enjoy history I think this would be a very satisfying reading experience.

As an aside, I gave this book to my Grandmother for Christmas in 2009 when she was 91 years old. She and I developed a pattern late in her life of me giving her books that I'd read that I liked for birthdays and Christmas. She was an avid reader and game to read anything, although like me her preferences were more inclined to history, biography, and travel. This was one of the rare books I gave her without reading first. When I asked her, on Christmas 2011, to lend me one of her favorite books she gave me this one. She was born in April of 1918, near the beginning of this book, and I think for her the book explained a lot of things people would mention in her childhood that never made much sense (relatives who died during the flu, particular idioms people would use, or beliefs they had about sickness).

She died in March of 2012 just a month shy of 94. In reading this book I am profoundly impressed by her intelligence. This book is not an easy read in spots (there were sections I read twice) and for someone who didn't even finish high school to read this book and not only understand it but enjoy it is a testament to the amazing person she was. This book still has the post-it note she always put on the inside front cover of books she got as gifts with the date, occasion, and person(s) who gave it to her. While she may be gone it makes me happy that she and I could at least share this one last experience together. (less)

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Jun 20, 2009 Sara W rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: i-own-on-kindle, non-fiction

Getting a little boring, so I'm taking a break from it. I think I expected a social history (how everyday people dealt with the flu, how it affected communities, etc.), and instead it's a very detailed history of medicine at the time (and well, well before the time of the flu!). I think I made it through a good 1/4 to 1/3 of the book (or more) before the Spanish flu began to get mentioned. The focus is on the medicine and doctors (individuals and as a profession - you get the whole history of U....more

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Jan 25, 2009 Mike rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: people who would skip their flu shots

Recommended to Mike by: Phyllis

Shelves: american-history, world-history, science

This book took me a long time to read, for several reasons. First, it really is two books in one. The first book is a history of the men and women and institutions involved in the change to scientific medicine in this country around the turn of the century. The second is the story of the influenza plague of 1918-1922 itself, the horrors of it, the death rate, the physical symptoms, the psychological effects, and the rather interesting fact that it seems to have been largely forgotten as the hist...more This book took me a long time to read, for several reasons. First, it really is two books in one. The first book is a history of the men and women and institutions involved in the change to scientific medicine in this country around the turn of the century. The second is the story of the influenza plague of 1918-1922 itself, the horrors of it, the death rate, the physical symptoms, the psychological effects, and the rather interesting fact that it seems to have been largely forgotten as the history of the 20th century wore on.

Barry bookends the second book with the first book, and you get the impression of an author who has researched the bejeesus out of his subject and time period, and is just brimming over with information that he needs to get down on paper. But the book on scientific medicine really needs to be edited out of the book about the flu plague, because the interaction of the two stories is bizarrely very small - when the plague comes, the scientists and researchers he has spent so much time describing have very little, almost no, impact on the progression of the disease itself. When the flu passes, the researchers continue to work on it, frantically, but nearly everyone is wrong about the cause of the disease for years and year. Other scientific discoveries are made in studies of other diseases, and finally a study of infected pigs sheds light onto the causative agent.

The organization of the telling of the influenza epidemic also needs editing, as Barry tells the story roughly chronologically but then diverts around geographically, sometimes telling the same kinds of stories again and again. So by the end of the book, you've read several horrifying stories of deaths by neglect, several accounts of the desperate medicinal efforts made, several accounts of rapid movement of the virus through populations. All of this loose organization makes the book a bit of a slog.

The second reason the book took me so long to read is just how painful the descriptions of the virus, the horrible effects it had on the bodies of its victims, the families of its victims, the communities of its victims, the mindsets of its victims and those who lived with the epidemic, were . . . it was horrifying in its scope and scale. The author certainly succeeds in one of his objectives, and that is to let everyone know that FLU CAN KILL, and even though everyone treats it with nonchalance, it is only through luck that we haven't encountered a very virulent and lethal strain lately. Reading this book would be an important thing to do for people who routinely skip their flu shot every year, and will spur the reader to think about what they would do with sick family members if the healthcare system was completely overwhelmed.

The most interesting part of the book was a chapter on the psychological damage the virus wrought on some people, and trying to link Woodrow Wilson's actions during the Paris peace conference of 1919 with changes brought on by a bought of the flu in April of that year. I think he proves his case that Wilson was changed mentally by the illness. What is less clear is whether the outcome of the Peace Conference would have been different because of it - the Germans were delusional about the end of WWI in any case, so it is a bit hard to lay Hitler and WWII at the feet of the flu.

I still would recommend this to nearly everyone. It is important to realize what we might have to deal with during any given flu season, and this book should be enough to scare anyone straight with regard to that. The author does a great job of describing the science of the pathology and doesn't make any big mistakes with the molecular biology that I caught. (less)

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Aug 16, 2008 Kay rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: american-histry, medical, science, world_war_i, audiobooks, nonfiction

"One always tends to overpraise a long book because one has got through it." – E.M. Forster

It took me the better part of the summer to listen to this audiobook in my car (I don't drive that much) -- and I confess that it soon became more of a chore than a pleasure. I do wish there had been a competently edited abridged version, for if ever a book cried out for editing, it was this one.

Some of the book's strengths, however, include the exhaustive account of how the pandemic started and spread, n...more "One always tends to overpraise a long book because one has got through it." – E.M. Forster

It took me the better part of the summer to listen to this audiobook in my car (I don't drive that much) -- and I confess that it soon became more of a chore than a pleasure. I do wish there had been a competently edited abridged version, for if ever a book cried out for editing, it was this one.

Some of the book's strengths, however, include the exhaustive account of how the pandemic started and spread, not to mention the effect it had on society. There was a huge amount of material on how the authorities (mostly didn't) deal with the crisis, one of the key themes of the book being that in order to deal with such a threat that the civil authorities need to be completely honest about it. Point taken, but it was repeated over and over and over.... as were the somewhat melodramatic accounts of how the bodies stacked up, what having the disease was like, what the death toll was, and so on and so forth.

Another strength was the intimate portraits of key researchers who rushed to find the cause of -- and a vaccine for -- the particularly virulent strain of influenza. There was a problem, though, in that the book's entire first section was a somewhat tedious historical account of the Johns Hopkins Institute. I'm still not sure why that was necessary (and suspect it wasn't). Granted, it was good to know what the state of medicine was at the turn of the century, but such an overview certainly could have been done more concisely. I also had real issues with the way several medical researchers, and in particular Paul Lewis, were cast into "roles" -- with Lewis the tragic figure that the author claimed was "the last victim" of the pandemic. Humph!

However, I did find it fascinating to read about the details and design of medical research, and in particular how viruses mutated and became more or less deadly. In fact, I wished for a bit more of that information and less of the endless parade of statistics that Barry seemed so inordinately fond of. I came to believe that he had never met a statistic he didn't like (or subsequently use). Again, I was puzzled about why the editors hadn't intervened and winnowed out the repetitious material.

Scott Brick, the reader for this book, was one of the biggest irritants, however, and no doubt significantly contributed to my feeling that the book was NEVER going to end. While his voice wasn't an unpleasant one, he seemed to have a very narrow "range" of intonation and emphasis. In fact, it sounded like he was overemphasizing just about everything, and he had a particular way of lingering over and stressing the word "any" that made me want to shriek after the first few hours. I had a hard time separating my irritation with his reading from my general impatience with the book, which is probably the reason I gave this three stars rather than two -- I'm not entirely sure whose fault it was that I didn't find this as interesting as I'd expected. (Plus, as Forster noted, one DOES tend to overpraise a long book that one finally manages to finish.)

If I'd been reading this book rather than listening to it, undoubtedly I would have been able to skim pretty efficiently, slowing down for the parts that interested me the most and just skipping over the repetitive bits. But as a "captive" listener, it was pretty tough going.

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Nov 29, 2008 Jeff rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Some people think I'm obsessed with disasters, but really I'm just fascinated by change. It's why I love history, among other things. 50 to 100 million people dying over the course of a year is a pretty big change, and the fact that it was all caused by a tiny little microscopic tidbit is utterly compelling. Mr. Barry does a more than thorough job of telling the story. You get a history of medicine, a science lesson in the biology of viruses, a review of the socio-political factors that led the...more

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Jun 08, 2009 Carole rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-medicine

I found the book a page turner...almost a medical mystery in the way it was laid out. As a physician, I was familiar with many of the names of physicians from the early 20th century, but the author draws such clear pictures of them--their character, experience, and flaws--that I found it a fascinating history of medicine as it developed late in the 19th century and into the early 10th century.

There was also fascinating political history in the way it impacted the communication and decision-makin...more

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Nov 11, 2007 Koeeoaddi rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ditched, dull, audiobook

One of the problems with audiobooks is that you hear every single word, so poor writing and bad editing are impossible to ignore. I'm interested in this subject, but the repetition, the scattershot narrative and long dull sections are making it a tedious book to listen to.

I wish I could skip the first 100 pages, as another reviewer recommended, but that's probably about the place where I gave up. I'm going to borrow the print version and see if it gets any better. That way I can just let my eyes...more

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Mar 05, 2009 Clif rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

John Barry is in love with science and we are the beneficiaries in this comprehensive account of the influenza epidemic that came at the end of WWI. Some of his prose is quite lyrical when he praises the scientific method and the virtue of rational thinking combined with imagination in some of the researchers he covers.

But there are villains as well as heroes here as we enter an earlier time where government did almost nothing while private initiatives and funding allied with individual effort t...more

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Feb 05, 2009 Bookmarks Magazine added it

...more

What happens when science, politics, and human nature collide in deadly conflict? Blood, death, and possibly some lessons for today. Barry, author of Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America, is a master at fashioning morality tales out of tragedy. Here, Barry explores how early 20th-century advances in epidemiology and the efforts of heroic health professionals left lasting legacies for today, but failed in the face of their own era's political, institutional, and cultural obstacles. The book, notes the Providence Journal, "stands solidly and eloquently on its own as a work of history and a cautionary tale."
Although other books have guided readers through the 1918 pandemic, The Great Influenza places this tiny lethal virus within a context of international, social, and medical history. Barry offers lucid (if at times complicated) biological and chemical explanations for the infection and spread of the influenza virus. Sections on microbiology, immunology, and epidemiology provide valuable background for Barry's larger story--or two stories. Critics note that the narrative, which focuses both on the development of modern medicine in the United States and the government's crippled response to the outbreak, doesn't always hang together. But where it does, it's a gripping tale, enhanced by Barry's gift for evoking the gory details of victims' rapid deaths. Blood, gore, fear, death? It's all there, in vivid detail. At times, Barry's penchant for sharing his extensive knowledge slows down the narrative. Do we really need to begin with Hippocrates and the history of medicine or want to know every detail about his leading scientists' lives? Despite these quibbles, the book resounds powerfully with recent attempts to squelch influenza outbreaks and "the power of fear to paralyze a population" (Chicago Tribune). It's a topic that is as fascinating as it is deadly. You'll be the first in line for flu shots next fall.

This is an excerpt from a review published in Bookmarks magazine.

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Jan 24, 2009 Sarah rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2006, historical-non-fiction, medical, free-library

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. . i was so excited to read this book. i like shit like this. but i was pretty disappointed in most of the book.
the first part gives a background of american medical history and why it was shit leading up to a few years before the outbreak in 1918. interesting in a way, and it kind of related to the story at hand by setting the stage for why medicine was so unprepared for the flu. but damn. a chapter would have been sufficient. i didn’t need a dozen of them. and i didn’t need to know what the ma...more . i was so excited to read this book. i like shit like this. but i was pretty disappointed in most of the book.
the first part gives a background of american medical history and why it was shit leading up to a few years before the outbreak in 1918. interesting in a way, and it kind of related to the story at hand by setting the stage for why medicine was so unprepared for the flu. but damn. a chapter would have been sufficient. i didn’t need a dozen of them. and i didn’t need to know what the main players favorite colors were when they were children. i didn’t need that much background.
the middle part was okay. it talked about the outbreak and how and why it spread so quickly around the world. it talked about how quickly people died and how bodies piled up and how so many people died. a lot of the book focussed on philadelphia. which i loved. i think this was partly because philadelphia was the first big city hit and it was hit bad and also because since it was a city, that better records were kept about the events. it mentioned the mass graves dug many times, but it never gave a location for them. i think it was probably on the outer edges of the city as it stood then.
the end of the book also had a little too much background. about the personal goals of scientists, etc. etc.
and the book was repetitive. i don’t mind being reminded of important things, but i didn’t need to know more than once about katherine anne porter’s obit being written up before she (didn’t) die. that’s a trivial pursuit fact not worth mentioning more than once, let alone three times.
i think the author’s focus was too broad when he wrote the book. i think it should have either dealt solely with the scientists or soley with the epidemic and how people responded/reacted to it--the new journalism human part of it, you know? if i were his editor i would have advised cutting the book by at least 200 pages and sharpening the focus.
i did learn a little bit about WWI. mainly that woodrow wilson was an ass and propagandized everything in america during the war. i saw a lot of parallels between him and gw--the war is all that matters, at the expense of everything else. public health was not a concern. newspapers could not publish anything about the epidemic that might cause fear or lower morale. doctors and nurses were needed for the soldiers, so they were sent to military bases instead of small towns where everyone was dying. there were gasless sundays and meatless mondays and all sorts of other restrictions on war necessities. it seems like, besides the flu, it would have been horrible to live in america then, having to watch what you said and did for fear of being labeled unpatriotic and thrown in jail.
so i really liked parts of the book and disliked the rest. if you’re going to read it, read the middle sections and skim the first several and the last one.
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Mar 25, 2013 Layla rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book did give insight into an event that had worldwide implications but about which most people know little. I am a "history buff" and all I really knew was that there was a very deadly influenza pandemic in 1918 and this virus killed a disproportionate number of young, healthy adults. There is so little literature about the event.

Like other readers, I found this book too expansive. Some of the biographical information on the Drs and scientists involved in public health and research are unn...more

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Mar 07, 2013 Ursula rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history, nonfiction, science, medicine

Covering a couple of very interesting topics - the 1918 influenza pandemic, and the rebirth of American medicine - Barry has a lot of material to work with and distill. The book starts off well, with background on the state of American medicine in the years before the pandemic and some of the scientists who would tirelessly pursue the causes of influenza.

Equally intriguing are the sections that talk about how the pandemic likely got started and spread. It reads a lot like Stephen King's The Stan...more

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Nov 27, 2012 Matthew rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Everyone interested in history and science

Trying to educate readers of not only the make-up of viruses, the methods the human body takes to defend itself from outside diseases, and the history of influenza is no easy task. This book provides both education and entertaining on what at the time seemed like the apocalypse. To do so to an audience without medical degrees was a work of art for John Barry. John Barry is able to paint a picture of what it was like to live at the time and in the setting when people were dying on all sides of yo...more

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Oct 26, 2012 Katherine rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I listened to the audio book version (unabridged and 19 hours and 26 minutes long.) While I found the subject matter fascinating, the book itself is weirdly organized and the narrator one of the lesser ones.

First, the book is really two books. The whole first third was about the state and history of medicine in America, the last part was about the impact of the pandemic on public health and science. There was an overwhelming amount of detail and statistics that, while interesting, are not that c...more

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Jul 22, 2012 Kelly rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I found this book really fascinating, but it didn't always hold my attention and took me something like 2 years to finish. Some of the reviewers have commented on writing/editing issues, and although I don't think it was necessarily horrible, the writing style didn't always seem to fit what appeared to be the purpose of the book. It does try to be many things at once. Personally, I would primarily categorize this as popular science even though it really is more history of science, with a signifi...more I found this book really fascinating, but it didn't always hold my attention and took me something like 2 years to finish. Some of the reviewers have commented on writing/editing issues, and although I don't think it was necessarily horrible, the writing style didn't always seem to fit what appeared to be the purpose of the book. It does try to be many things at once. Personally, I would primarily categorize this as popular science even though it really is more history of science, with a significant dose of just plain old history thrown in. It covers the development of physician education and medical research in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth in order to set the stage for the state of the research and medical community at the outset of the outbreak. It discusses the many government and military decisions that were made, and solutions proposed but not followed. It also touches on the efforts of fledgling public health departments as well as volunteer organizations to stop the spread. And it details the efforts of the major players across America and Europe to find a cause and/or cure for influenza and some other dangerous pathogenic illnesses, both before and after. This all can get fairly technical. But what Barry tries to do is to tie this all together into one narrative, and it doesn't always go perfectly smoothly.

So I think that this is a good book with lots of good information, but it probably will annoy some people. The book can notably be repetitive and nonlinear, and I think that may be a side effect of the attempt to tell a massive story while still drawing the reader in emotionally. I think Barry generally manages to justify any real inferences he makes on the part of emotions and motivations of various people in the book (with support from documentation), but not always. The Afterword and Acknowledgments actually shed some light on why the book may be the way it is: Barry says that he originally intended it to be a "straightforward story of the deadliest epidemic in human history" from the perspectives of scientists and politicians dealing with it. But then he found that he needed more for things to make sense, so he added in the history of American medicine, for instance. Some things really are way more complex than they seem. So if you are ever annoyed by writing style, you might want to read a few pages of this one before spending money on it. Or you can do like me and read like a page a day for a long time.

My favorite fact from the book is that the reason it's called "The Spanish Flu" is not because there was anything significant relating it to Spain. Instead, the U.S. and other European countries were getting hit far, far worse by the epidemic than Spain was, but since it was the middle of WW I they were censoring the press to keep morale up while Spain was not because it was neutral. There were more reports of influenza in the Spanish press, while many of the authorities elsewhere were denying a problem and tying concern about influenza to lack of patriotism.

Also, I have more information to support my idea that Woodrow Wilson was a jerk.(less)

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Jul 17, 2012 fashes rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: medical, comfort-books, audio-book

Qualifier: I have this book on Audio narrated by Scott Brick.

I love this book. I love it feverishly. I read it like a bedtime story - literally.

It's a dramatic telling with lots of viscous facts and human grit ala Eleven Blue Men. It's also a fantastic American Medicine mini history.

I love the bits of science mixed in with what some call melodrama. Beyond the gripping grotesque horrific story of The Great Influenza - which is awesome - there is the hidden biography of Johns Hopkins hospital a...more

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May 28, 2012 Sarah Kalaitzidis rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I know this book is different then what is normally reviewed, but I thought that it was still very interesting and one to be shared. It is purely fact, talking about real events and statistics.

The Great Influenza talks about the scientific breakthroughs, and letdowns, before, during and after the 1918-1919 outbreak of the Great Influenza. It goes by other names, such as La Grippe and the Spanish Flu, and in this review I'll be calling it just influenza, as it is in the book.

John M. Barry does a...more I know this book is different then what is normally reviewed, but I thought that it was still very interesting and one to be shared. It is purely fact, talking about real events and statistics.

The Great Influenza talks about the scientific breakthroughs, and letdowns, before, during and after the 1918-1919 outbreak of the Great Influenza. It goes by other names, such as La Grippe and the Spanish Flu, and in this review I'll be calling it just influenza, as it is in the book.

John M. Barry does a fantastic job when presenting the story of the influenza. He discusses the scientific breakthroughs pr-1918, such as the rise of immunization, antibiotics, and even cures for contagious diseases. This sets the scene of why people didn't feel afraid at the start of the break. As is said many times throughout the book, "It was only influenza. Only influenza." Barry also discusses the backgrounds and rise of many prominent scientists and doctors at this time, such as Henry Welch, Simon Flexner, Oswald T. Avery, and Paul A. Lewis. They, and others mentioned in the book, where the pioneers of medicine at the time. They were among the first to use microscopes and modern scientific methods, and fought to find a cure for the influenza, even at the risk of infection themselves.

Barry traces the outbreak of influenza, from the start of just a few soldiers coming down with illness, to the spread of the general population. As it was "only influenza. Only influenza," no one was worried about the influenza reaching the levels it did. The disease, in its various forms, usually killed the very young and very old, not men and women in the prime of their lives. But that's exactly what happened. Among the highest ranges of death was in the 24-29 year range. Instead of the usual U graph, it's a W graph. This is explained, as the discoveries happen.

The statistics in the book vary, but that's due to the often inaccurate reports at the time. The influenza carried between a 10%-20% death rate, with about 3-6% of the global adult population dying. In numbers, they range between 25 million within the first 25 weeks of infection, to as many as 40-100 million dead globally. Why does this matter? This happened nearly a century. Well, the strain of influenza was... H1N1. Yeah, that H1N1. The strain that appeared then appeared to have been a particularly lethal one, hitting in three waves in one year. The one that flared up in 2009 was a less lethal form, but had the potential to cause a new global pandemic. Even today, we're not prepared to be able to handle the sudden deaths of millions of people within weeks.

I can admit, this book hit close to home. Both my mother and grandmother were nurses, and it made me think of them while reading about the nurse shortage. About nurses who were kidnapped so they would treat sick patients, or those who fled their jobs for their own lives. And especially about the nurses and doctors who died trying to cure. My maternal great-grandfather's first wife was also killed by the influenza. If she had lived, would I be the woman I am today?

The one thing that bothered me about the book was that it was very American centered. It glossed over the war, making it seem as though the war only really started once America became involved. (Again, a personal connection, as my maternal great-grandfather was a soldier in WW1.) It also talked mainly about America's sickness, talking about other countries as barely more than statistics or minor breakthroughs foreign doctors made. This was a global pandemic, not just an American disease. On the other hand, photos of major scientists are included, as well as the photos of the field hospitals and precautions people took at the time.

If you're looking for a historical book, this is a highly recommended read. The science is easy to understood, as well as the timelines.(less)

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May 26, 2012 Colleen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history

So my friends (and some of you here on Goodreads) got the exquisite torture of me reading this book for past few weeks (I'm a fast reader but this was my "work" book that I read during my interminably slow restarts at the office).

Much of the book can be disregarded. If one wanted to read a book on medical science from antiquity to its reformation, then this book might be for you. Instead the book felt weirdly disjointed and unnecessary--yes John Hopkins is a great school, and hurray! for advanc...more So my friends (and some of you here on Goodreads) got the exquisite torture of me reading this book for past few weeks (I'm a fast reader but this was my "work" book that I read during my interminably slow restarts at the office).

Much of the book can be disregarded. If one wanted to read a book on medical science from antiquity to its reformation, then this book might be for you. Instead the book felt weirdly disjointed and unnecessary--yes John Hopkins is a great school, and hurray! for advancements in medical science in America, but what did this have to do with the Great Flu of 1919? Almost nothing, because as the author reports, most of the sufferers never saw a doctor.

There ought to be a great compendium on what happened--there should be shelves and shelves of material reporting on the events of that year--but there's not. So in that sense, this book is PRECIOUS. 100+ million people died. 10% in some countries of all the young people. This book is still at work, so I can't quote directly, but the most chilling part was a trolley car ride one South African took. 3 miles to his house. On the way there, the conductor died. The driver died. 4 more people on the car died. So he walked home.

I actually took a class in college on the year 1919. I've watched documentaries on the flu that year...and now I've read this book. So I'm glad to read it flaws aside. If I was the editor, I would have cut out all the nonessential parts. Everything before the country doctor in Haskell, KS, I would have ruthlessly cut--all the parts about some Dr Lewis trying to find cure to yellow fever in Brazil (what did this have to do with anything?)--cut. Author should have found more contemporary source material and run with that.

I would have divided the book actually up in chapters with different cities and their response. Philadelphia, New Orleans, Boston, San Francisco, Denver are the obvious places to start with after reading the book, but since this was such a worldwide pandemic, he could have easily included India, Mexico (since Mexico & India were hardest hit), and other international cities that were decimated.

Overall very disappointed in book but I look forward to reading something that takes this research and writes the history of this as its deserved to be written. This is forgotten history after all--something this calamitous and nigh-apocalyptic should not be forgotten and swept under rug, and it's very interesting that so little is commonly known about this. Everyone gets weepy about the Titanic or Lusitania but a worldwide disaster such as this gets buried. The lack of attention to this is actually also worthy of study.(less)

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May 09, 2012 Patricia Weenolsen rated it 2 of 5 stars

The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History, by John M. Barry, Viking Press, 2004.

I did not read this book.
I began it only to find myself assaulted with multiple hagiographies of the men who worked to solve the mystery of this epidemic in 1918. “Weren’t there any women involved?” I asked myself, as I do with all books that are men only.

The answer is “Yes!” Anna Wessel Williams was, by the author’s account, “probably the leading female bacteriologist in the world.”

“...more The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History, by John M. Barry, Viking Press, 2004.

I did not read this book.
I began it only to find myself assaulted with multiple hagiographies of the men who worked to solve the mystery of this epidemic in 1918. “Weren’t there any women involved?” I asked myself, as I do with all books that are men only.

The answer is “Yes!” Anna Wessel Williams was, by the author’s account, “probably the leading female bacteriologist in the world.”

“What were her accomplishments?” you’re asking breathlessly, if you’re anything like me. This is exciting news!

“A lonely woman who never married,” the author goes on to give a brief account of her life and negative emotions beside her picture between pages 181 and 182. She seems to have been the only unhappy scientist. There’s a similar account later in the book, still emphasizing her personal life, and where her professional accomplishments are mentioned, she is always second to a man. That’s because they were partners, of course.

Meanwhile, the men researched the plague, developed a diphtheria antitoxin, a pneumonia vaccine, and proved that both polio and flu were caused by a virus. Their personal lives were less in evidence. Many female nurses got out of working with the patients because it could be dangerous. Those who volunteered, “waited.”

You have to go to other sources such as Wikipedia for a balanced account of what Doctor Anna Wessels Williams did professionally. The “first woman to be elected chair of the laboratory section of the American Public Health Association,” she must have been good for something. She developed the diphtheria antitoxin along with a male partner, research one for scarlet fever, developed a culture for a rabies vaccine, and published classic texts. And her accomplishments go on.

I have struggled with whether or not it’s fair of me to give this book a rating, but the biased text is not the only flaw. I wanted more of a social history of the patients, their families, caregivers, and others affected by the great epidemic — individual stories. The account of burial practices was a good one. But most of the hundreds of pages I did slog through were just plain dull.

I think it’s important to identify and censure any sort of bias that may exist in our reading materials.
________ Patricia Weenolsen, Ph.D.

(less)

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Feb 18, 2012 Christopher rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mass-market-history

An interesting book with an eclectic approach to the subject that is generally rewarding. The different strands that the author chases down often prove enlightening, varying from the dismal state of American medical science and practice at the end of the 19th century to the draconian laws that Wilson passed upon America's entrance into the Great War.

At times, however, the author's enthusiasm for these threads overwhelm his sense of the larger work, leading to lengthy and detailed tangents into...more

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Jan 25, 2012 Ugh rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is terrifying and inspiring in equal measure, but then it was really the events themselves that are responsible for that - although Barry of course deserves credit for unearthing the stories and figures. More pertinently, it's fairly gripping for most of its 465 pages - more so when covering the individual and collective efforts of scientists and doctors, less so when recounting so many deaths here, so many deaths there (it's something of a mortality tale, if you will. Sorry.).

My main grip...more

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Dec 20, 2011 Joanne rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history

Who edited this book and WHY did they ever let John Barry away with destroying what could have been the most fascinating story about an epic period of recent human history with tedious hyperbole, stilted melodrama, and a simple lack of good sense? Barry spends far too much time talking about non-players/minor players and the minutiae of their lives apart from the influenza making the reading utterly dull in parts. On the other hand, much of the real and relevant writing about the epidemic is fas...more

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Nov 18, 2011 Thomas Paul rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It killed more people in 6 months than the Black Death killed in a century. People who were young and strong were the most likely to die. In the US, 650,000 people died. The average life expectancy in the US went down by 10 years. Worldwide, perhaps 100 million people died. And yet, it was only the flu. Even today, 90 years after the epidemic, it kills 36,000 Americans in a typical year and we are hardly more prepared to face another epidemic.

John M. Barry has written a fascinating account of th...more It killed more people in 6 months than the Black Death killed in a century. People who were young and strong were the most likely to die. In the US, 650,000 people died. The average life expectancy in the US went down by 10 years. Worldwide, perhaps 100 million people died. And yet, it was only the flu. Even today, 90 years after the epidemic, it kills 36,000 Americans in a typical year and we are hardly more prepared to face another epidemic.

John M. Barry has written a fascinating account of the influenza epidemic of 1918. But the book is a lot more than just a review of the flu. Barry starts out by examining the state of the American health system at the time of the epidemic and how it reached that state. He explores the revolutionary changes to medicine that occurred in the late 19th and early 20th century and the people who led those changes. He shows us why, even today, a cure for influenza is beyond our reach, explaining in layman’s terms how the influenza virus changes to become deadly and changes again to lose that deadliness. He explains how an endemic virus can lead to an epidemic of unimagined proportions.

Barry also shows how the demands of World War I on troop movements, the propaganda campaigns to keep morale high, and the failure of leaders to listen to the doctors and researchers led to a killing field of historic size. His account tends to concentrate on Philadelphia because the city was hit extremely hard and much of the research going on was near that city but he does cover other areas around the world hit hard by the virus, although his coverage of the flu outside of the US is sketchy at best. He gives us writings from diaries and newspaper articles to show what was actually happening and how the media tried to downplay the epidemic. He gives us detailed accounts of the research (and the researchers) that was done to fight the epidemic, explains why this research was mostly unsuccessful, and does it all in a way that is easy to understand even if you don’t have a medical degree.

Barry likes to use foreshadowing, hints of what is to come, to keep the reader’s interest and it does work, even if it is a bit melodramatic. Even the chapter titles, “The Tinderbox”, “It Begins”, The Race”, provide some melodrama to the story. The book mostly moves at a good pace and I found myself having trouble putting it down. Barry has written a book that everyone should read, whether you are familiar with the epidemic or not. It is a fascinating, terrifying, detailed, and extremely important book.(less)

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May 05, 2011 Jen rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fic

I would have given this book a better review, but the author failed to focus his subject. The first section of the book deals not with the influenza epidemic of 1918-1918 but the history and status of medical schools in the early 1900's. While this is a facinating topic and most readers are probably shocked to find out the majority of MD's in at the turn of the century graduated medical school without ever touching a patient, the length of discussion is not necessary to discuss the influenza epi...more

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Dec 22, 2010 Bruce rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm not saying there's not a lot of meat here, just that it's not worth the digestive problems the author induces to get at them.

Bear with me as this is going to be something of an odd review, inasmuch as I'll be using it to compare two completely unrelated books, neither of which has anything to do with the subject of my short essay. Susan Casey's The Devil's Teeth is ostensibly about great white sharks and the Farallon Islands: a windswept, bird-festooned archipelago off the coast of San Franc...more

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Jul 21, 2010 Paul Mazzuca rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

As a disaster junkie, hoping to be part of the solution in disasters rather than part of the problem, I have been monitoring and reporting on influenza and emerging diseases for about 10 years now. I am a member of American Society for Microbiology and AAAS and the DNA from the H1N1 virus from that particular epidemic was sequenced by David Taubenberger who used to go to GMU. (My micro prof is/was very proud of him!)

Behaviors like trench warfare, and lack of isolation and the deadly nature of t...more

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About John M. Barry

John M. Barry is an American author and historian, perhaps best known for his books on the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 the influenza pandemic of 1918and his book on the development of the modern form of the ideas of separation of church and state and individual liberty. His most recent book is Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty (Viking...more John M. Barry is an American author and historian, perhaps best known for his books on the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 the influenza pandemic of 1918and his book on the development of the modern form of the ideas of separation of church and state and individual liberty. His most recent book is Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty (Viking 2012).

Barry's 1997 book Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America appeared on the New York Times Best Seller list and won the 1998 Francis Parkman Prize from the Society of American Historians for the year's best book on American history. His work on water-related issues was recognized by the National Academies of Sciences in its invitation to give the 2006 Abel Wolman Distinguished Lecture on Water Resources; he is the only non-scientist ever to give that lecture.

His 2004 book The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Greatest Plague in History was also a New York Times Best Seller, and won the 2005 Keck Communications Award from the United States National Academies of Science for the year's outstanding book on science or medicine. In 2005 he also won the "September 11th Award" from the Center for Biodefense and Emerging Pathogens at Brown University. He has served on a federal government's Infectious Disease Board of Experts, on the advisory board of MIT's Center for Engineering Fundamentals, and on the advisory committee at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health for its Center for Refugee and Disaster Response.

The expertise he developed in these two areas has involved him in policy-making, risk communication and disaster management strategies, and developing resilient communities, and this work resulted in his induction into Delta Omega, the academic honorary society for public health. More specifically, he has advised the private sector and local, state, national, and international government officials about preparing for another influenza pandemic. He has also both advised officials and taken a direct role in preparing for water-related disasters. A resident of New Orleans, after Hurricane Katrina he was also named to both the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority, which is the levee board overseeing several separate levee districts in the New Orleans area, and the state's Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, which is responsible for hurricane protection for the entire state.

His first book, The Ambition and the Power: A true story of Washington, appeared in 1989 and explored the operation of the U.S. Congress, the use of power by Speaker of the House Jim Wright, and the rise of future Speaker Newt Gingrich. In 1995 the New York Times named it one of the eleven best books ever written on Congress and Washington.

With Steven Rosenberg, MD, Ph.D., chief of the Surgery Branch at the National Cancer Institute and a pioneer in the development of "immunotherapy" for cancer—stimulating the immune system to attack cancer—Barry co-authored his second book, The Transformed Cell: Unlocking the Mysteries of Cancer, which was published in 12 languages.

Barry has written for The New York Times, Time Magazine, Fortune, The Washington Post, Esquire, and other publications and frequently appears as a guest commentator on broadcast media.

He has also coached high school and college football, and his first published article was about blocking assignments for offensive linemen and appeared in a professional journal for coaches, Scholastic Coach.(less)

More about John M. Barry...

Books by John M. Barry

Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America

Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty

The Ambition and the Power: The Fall of Jim Wright : A True Story of Washington

Power Plays: Politics, Football, and Other Blood Sports

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