Read Online The Great Influenza The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History eBook John M Barry
Download As PDF : The Great Influenza The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History eBook John M Barry
The definitive account of the 1918 Flu Epidemic. "Monumental"-Chicago Tribune.
At the height of WWI, history’s most lethal influenza virus erupted in an army camp in Kansas, moved east with American troops, then exploded, killing as many as 100 million people worldwide. It killed more people in twenty-four months than AIDS killed in twenty-four years, more in a year than the Black Death killed in a century. But this was not the Middle Ages, and 1918 marked the first collision of science and epidemic disease. Magisterial in its breadth of perspective and depth of research and now revised to reflect the growing danger of the avian flu, The Great Influenza is ultimately a tale of triumph amid tragedy, which provides us with a precise and sobering model as we confront the epidemics looming on our own horizon. John M. Barry has written a new afterword for this edition that brings us up to speed on the terrible threat of the avian flu and suggest ways in which we might head off another flu pandemic.
Read Online The Great Influenza The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History eBook John M Barry
"This book gave me far more than I ever wanted to know about the Great Influenza Epidemic of 1918-19. It begins in September of 1876 with the founding of the Johns Hopkins University, with its emphasis on medical research. It continues with the difficulty in getting doctors and educators to believe that there was a place for research in medicine at all. While this may be very interesting to many (including me) that is not the thing for which I had purchase this book. I kept waiting for the plague to begin and, sure enough, chapter 14 begins with the news that in February of 1918 someone from Haskell County Kansas most likely carried the disease to Camp Funston, a U.S. Army training camp located on Fort Riley, southwest of Manhattan, Kansas. It goes on to tell in great detail the difficulty of convincing the army, or most anyone in power, that it was killing people, even as it was doing exactly that.
The book is, my opinion, well written. There are so many characters, however, that I had to retrace my steps from time to time in order to refresh my memory of who was working to stop the spread and who was pushing hard to keep moving soldiers from place to place within America as well as abroad. It was primarily the troop movement that enabled the disease to become a world-wide pandemic.
I do not wish to discourage anyone from reading the book: it probably explains how a disease killed more than 21 million people before it ended in 1920, in a world population of less than one-third of what it is today, about as well as it can be explained.
If you should choose to read the book, just be prepared to decide how much medical history you wish to read. What is most discouraging is the fact that the American medical system isn't that much different in its unwillingness to accept change in the diagnosis and treatment of illness from the way it was then. Thankfully, research has prevailed, and science and technology have given us a great armament of knowledge and weapons with which to prevent and cure disease."
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The Great Influenza The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History eBook John M Barry Reviews :
The Great Influenza The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History eBook John M Barry Reviews
- On February 25, 2016 my healthy 48 year old son died from the flu. This terrible event sent me in search of knowledge about the virus. The search led me to this book.
The book is well researched, yet the key element that makes the book readable is the narrative about the state of medical science, medical schools and their evolution at the start of the 20th century. Then the historical context is set up for the events that followed. There is also a detailed account of why the pandemic took such a toll on the world.
Every year we are told to get vaccinated against the flu. After reading this book and having lost my son to the flu, the book gave me a deeper understanding of the forces at work and why sometimes the outcome can be so deadly.
I highly recommend this book. - This book gave me far more than I ever wanted to know about the Great Influenza Epidemic of 1918-19. It begins in September of 1876 with the founding of the Johns Hopkins University, with its emphasis on medical research. It continues with the difficulty in getting doctors and educators to believe that there was a place for research in medicine at all. While this may be very interesting to many (including me) that is not the thing for which I had purchase this book. I kept waiting for the plague to begin and, sure enough, chapter 14 begins with the news that in February of 1918 someone from Haskell County Kansas most likely carried the disease to Camp Funston, a U.S. Army training camp located on Fort Riley, southwest of Manhattan, Kansas. It goes on to tell in great detail the difficulty of convincing the army, or most anyone in power, that it was killing people, even as it was doing exactly that.
The book is, my opinion, well written. There are so many characters, however, that I had to retrace my steps from time to time in order to refresh my memory of who was working to stop the spread and who was pushing hard to keep moving soldiers from place to place within America as well as abroad. It was primarily the troop movement that enabled the disease to become a world-wide pandemic.
I do not wish to discourage anyone from reading the book it probably explains how a disease killed more than 21 million people before it ended in 1920, in a world population of less than one-third of what it is today, about as well as it can be explained.
If you should choose to read the book, just be prepared to decide how much medical history you wish to read. What is most discouraging is the fact that the American medical system isn't that much different in its unwillingness to accept change in the diagnosis and treatment of illness from the way it was then. Thankfully, research has prevailed, and science and technology have given us a great armament of knowledge and weapons with which to prevent and cure disease. - One of my all time favorite books is The Hot Zone by Richard Preston that explores the origins and epidemiology of the Ebola virus. I read it while still in high school and my interest in virulent and epidemic diseases has persisted since then.
Typically I have a bigger TBR pile than I can handle so I tend to ignore the notifications about discounted or hot new books, however on a whim I checked one out and this book, which reminded me of The Hot Zone, was steeply discounted such that it was an irresistible purchase.
The opening starts slow, and I'd argue the pace of the book is slow, plodding, and methodical, much as the scientists John Barry describes so vividly. Like Avery, he deep dives into the Spanish flu and leaves little if nothing unexplored. Like Welch he makes something deeply scientific approachable to lay people.
I am especially appreciative that he took the time to develop the context so that readers could appreciate even more how influenza taxed both researchers and medical practitioners.
Moreover Barry demonstrates the importance of vaccination and the continued risk and deadliness of influenza today without sounding like a government PSA. This is still a disease to be taken very seriously.
Overall a gripping, thrilling read. I'm so glad for this whim of a purchase. My family...perhaps not so much as I've...uh....been talking their ears off about it. - John Barry has meticulously researched the information in this book. The Great Influenza killed millions worldwide, and at the time, no one had a clue as to what it was, how it was transmitted, how it killed, or how to stop it. In fact, the so-called doctors and researchers of the day didn't even know what a virus was. The respones to this plague by chemists, clinicians, researchers, doctors and medical facilities changed the course of medicine in this country from that of little more than witch doctors and shamans to what we now know as modern medicine and DNA. It is a brilliantly written book, and one which will scare the living daylights out of anyone who will read just how appalling the state of medicine and medical training was in the early 20th century.
