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The Great War
War on Influenza 1918: History, Causes and Treatment of the World's Most Lethal Pandemic
Influenza should scare you.
Read Into this detailed and chilling account of the Influenza outbreak of 1918. A terrifying virus that stretched across the globe. Even now, a century after the great flu of 1918, which left an estimated 50 to 100 million people dead worldwide, there's still no cure.
This book examines influenza from all sorts of angles—history, diagnosis and treatment, economics and epidemiology‚ health-care policy, and prevention. It gives insights on pandemics and provides the needed knowledge to evaluate the truthfulness of the proliferating, often contradicting information about the present pandemic.
While influenza is now often thought of as a common but mild disease, it still kills more than thirty thousand people in the United States each year. What can we learn from the original 1918 virus that will protect us from the next outbreak?
War on Influenza 1918: History, Causes and Treatment of the World's Most Lethal Pandemic is part science, part history, and part expert advice, this is precisely the book you want to read when you’re tucked in bed feeling feverish.
Read Into this detailed and chilling account of the Influenza outbreak of 1918. A terrifying virus that stretched across the globe. Even now, a century after the great flu of 1918, which left an estimated 50 to 100 million people dead worldwide, there's still no cure.
This book examines influenza from all sorts of angles—history, diagnosis and treatment, economics and epidemiology‚ health-care policy, and prevention. It gives insights on pandemics and provides the needed knowledge to evaluate the truthfulness of the proliferating, often contradicting information about the present pandemic.
While influenza is now often thought of as a common but mild disease, it still kills more than thirty thousand people in the United States each year. What can we learn from the original 1918 virus that will protect us from the next outbreak?
War on Influenza 1918: History, Causes and Treatment of the World's Most Lethal Pandemic is part science, part history, and part expert advice, this is precisely the book you want to read when you’re tucked in bed feeling feverish.
134 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 17, 2020
56 people are currently reading
20 people want to read
About the author
Daniel Wrinn
88 books12 followersI write books and narrate audiobooks about WWII Pacific Theater history.
My focus covers three areas: the island-hopping campaigns that defeated Japan, the cultural forces that made Japanese soldiers fight to the death, and the extraordinary stories of Pacific War survivors who defied the odds.
What matters are the real experiences—the Marines on the beaches, the sailors under kamikaze attack, the soldiers who refused to surrender, and the commanders making impossible decisions.
US Navy veteran. Military history author.
My focus covers three areas: the island-hopping campaigns that defeated Japan, the cultural forces that made Japanese soldiers fight to the death, and the extraordinary stories of Pacific War survivors who defied the odds.
What matters are the real experiences—the Marines on the beaches, the sailors under kamikaze attack, the soldiers who refused to surrender, and the commanders making impossible decisions.
US Navy veteran. Military history author.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
April 14, 2022
This was no Richard Preston medical history novel. I made it about 1/3 of the way through before putting it down. Rather than a true history, this book just discussed symptoms and complications of the flu virus. Verb tenses flipped so much that I was never sure if the symptoms in question were associated with modern flu infections or from the original influenza pandemics. In the portion I read, it read like a class essay, but without any sources cited for the studies and cases referenced.
May 4, 2023
Not much new information here and a worrying tendency to use the terms “virus” and “bacteria” interchangeably when they are decidedly not the same critter.
March 29, 2021
This was so good. I’m a Medical Lab Technologist and have worked in microbiology a lot so I understood this well. It’s very educational in the history of the flu pandemic and also what takes place in the body and the body’s reaction to it. Sometimes our body can cause more harm to us with its defense mechanism for fighting foreign substances. This explains a lot of that. It’s broken down into greatly organized chapters and even has titles for them. It would be the perfect textbook like listen or read for any medical student. Learning the history of any medical events is of utmost importance if we are to learn and grow in preventing future outbreaks. I especially liked the short part at the end about the comparison with the current covid pandemic. It’s scary to learn the statistics.
My only beef with this and why I only gave four stars, at times it was confusing because it seemed the terms bacteria and virus were interchangeable in talk of the flu pandemic. Was it the influenza B, as in the virus that causes gastrointestinal problems or the Haemophilus influenzae B, the bacteria? I’m thinking it switched from one to the other but at some point, my mind wondered some because I listened on the way home from my hour drive from work and there was a lot on my mind plus I had worked all night. So some of it was my fault. I just don’t want the layman to be confusing viruses with bacteria. It wasn’t a big deal because it was written well and that part is probably just me because there was so much information and I really got into it. I’ve never read or listened to anything written this well. It was amazing.
The narrator was amazing. Some words were pronounced wrong but I didn’t feel it was that big a deal. The voice was great and not monotone at all. I highly recommend this to anyone, even history buffs, not just medical people.
My only beef with this and why I only gave four stars, at times it was confusing because it seemed the terms bacteria and virus were interchangeable in talk of the flu pandemic. Was it the influenza B, as in the virus that causes gastrointestinal problems or the Haemophilus influenzae B, the bacteria? I’m thinking it switched from one to the other but at some point, my mind wondered some because I listened on the way home from my hour drive from work and there was a lot on my mind plus I had worked all night. So some of it was my fault. I just don’t want the layman to be confusing viruses with bacteria. It wasn’t a big deal because it was written well and that part is probably just me because there was so much information and I really got into it. I’ve never read or listened to anything written this well. It was amazing.
The narrator was amazing. Some words were pronounced wrong but I didn’t feel it was that big a deal. The voice was great and not monotone at all. I highly recommend this to anyone, even history buffs, not just medical people.
November 27, 2020
This book wasn't really what I thought it would be. I was looking for more of a history of the 1918 influenza epidemic. Instead, this is more a detailed description of influenza throughout history. Plenty of in-depth details of pathology, symptoms, treatments, and so on. Not so much details about the actual epidemic in 1918.
The author added a great epilogue, talking about how the 1918 outbreak is related to the current Covid-19 pandemic. Even though medical technology has grown since 1918, we are still muddling through trying to figure out how to stop the current pandemic.
As a medical professional, this book reminded me of a lot of my college classes. If you have minimal medical background, I think that this book might be a little more detailed than you would enjoy.
The narrator did a decent job, but his mispronunciation of a lot of words was bothersome. I realize that a lot of the words aren't those that most people would know, but if you are going to narrate a book like this, you should try to find out how to properly pronounce the medical terms.
The author added a great epilogue, talking about how the 1918 outbreak is related to the current Covid-19 pandemic. Even though medical technology has grown since 1918, we are still muddling through trying to figure out how to stop the current pandemic.
As a medical professional, this book reminded me of a lot of my college classes. If you have minimal medical background, I think that this book might be a little more detailed than you would enjoy.
The narrator did a decent job, but his mispronunciation of a lot of words was bothersome. I realize that a lot of the words aren't those that most people would know, but if you are going to narrate a book like this, you should try to find out how to properly pronounce the medical terms.
November 11, 2020
Great perspective! Not the usual good detailing on transmission around the world and the US in particular, but an in depth look at the disease itself and its mechanisms of destruction of bodily organs as well as the method attempted to curb that destruction. And the info gained from numerous autopsies. It has an eerie resemblance to the effect of the current novel virus as well as a few items that I hadn't known about like the temporary blindness with a transient hyperglycemia and sinus infections. The renal, pneumonic, phlebitis are similar, but there seems not to have been a concomitant cardiac effect. The quarantine efforts of the day have a different name today, but worked to advantage when begun soon enough. And they had as much fake news and false claims then as we do today! Good work!
I have the audio and my only thing about that is the mispronunciation of terms, otherwise it was very useful.
I have the audio and my only thing about that is the mispronunciation of terms, otherwise it was very useful.
November 11, 2020
This audiobook may be short (3.5 hours), but it is crammed full of information. If you are looking for an academic history of the 1918 Flu Pandemic this is the book for you. War on Influenza is perfect for physicians on the front lines of the COVID-19 virus. Because I am a layman, this book was over-my-head. I would have preferred a more anecdotal style. However, this is an excellent book if you are looking for a detailed account of what physicians tried in 1918.
January 31, 2021
A short introduction to the War on Influenza. It was just the right mix of history and science and was short enough to not drone on and on but you still got a ton of information. I was looking for something to help me understand the Spanish Flu and to relate to our current pandemic. The narrator was able to amplify the subject matter with hi performance.
Thanks to StoryOrigin for a copy. All opinions are my own.
Thanks to StoryOrigin for a copy. All opinions are my own.
October 29, 2020
audible:This book was ok.I was hoping for a more detailed read.The cases hop from place to place and tend to state that most is not typical of the flu.There are better books out there,I have read them.. Narration by Jerry McDaniel was ok.Mispronounced words really bother me.Maybe an edit would help.I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.'
October 30, 2020
Everything you ever wanted to know about Spanish Flu, A fascinating book, not a story it reads like a medical publication article but it still kept me very interested. Lots of facts and figures, descriptions of symptoms and treatments. Really interesting. I was given a complementary copy from Storyorigin and am leaving a voluntary honest review.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews