The End of October

by Lawrence Wright

“Everybody thinks it was just the dinosaurs, but five times in the history of the earth most of its living creatures were made extinct,” Jill said.

No one knew exactly where it originated; it was termed the “Spanish” flu because, during the First World War, Spain was neutral, and the press was free to report on the outbreak. Later investigations suggested that the first cases had been in Haskell County, Kansas, or in the Ford Motor plant in Detroit, or in China, or Austria—no one really knew.

“A friend of mine once said that when good people do good, and evil people do evil, it is not surprising. But when good people do evil, it takes religion to do that.”