The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History in The Complete Idiots Guide to the Ultimate Reading List

Jan 30, 2008 MJ rated it liked it

Shelves: idiots-ultimate-reading, history, ok-books

Epic is the right word. This book covers the events that led to the Influenza pandemic that occured in 1918. It is sometimes called the Spanish, in 24 weeks this virus killed more people then the HIV virus killed in over 24 years. It starts out by telling us about the medical reforms that started 30 years before the virus hit and the advancements that also took place. We learn about the leaders and revolutionars of the medical world at this time. You learn about viruses in general, the Influenza ...more

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Jun 13, 2009 Eileen Conner rated it it was amazing

Shelves: war, world-history, history-american, medical, science

This is a wonderful overview of the biggest pandemic of the 20th century. It first shows how medicine in the US had just started being modernized before the 1918 flu started, who the big men of science and medicine were, and how they approached this disease that killed in such numbers. It also shows how World War I influenced the spread of the pandemic and the public's knowledge of what the disease was doing outside their community. The book also made me question how our modern medicine would be ...more

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Jul 07, 2009 Christi rated it liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, history

I enjoyed this book but I felt that at times it wandered quite a bit. I was looking for more history regarding the influenza outbreak. At times it definitely felt like parts of this book were not even related to Influenza and were more about the history of Pathology.

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