The Great Influenza

The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History

By: John M. Barry

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 19 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

In the winter of 1918, at the height of World War I, 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 24 weeks than AIDS has killed in 24 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 between modern science and epidemic disease.

Magisterial in its breadth of perspective and depth of research, The Great Influenza weaves together multiple narratives, with characters ranging from William Welch, founder of the Johns Hopkins Medical School, to John D. Rockefeller and Woodrow Wilson. Ultimately a tale of triumph amid tragedy, this crisis provides us with a precise and sobering model as we confront the epidemics looming on our own horizon.

©2004, 2005 John M. Barry (P)2006 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Monumental...powerfully intelligent...not just a masterful narrative...but also an authoritative and disturbing morality tale." (Chicago Tribune)

"Easily our fullest, richest, most panoramic history of the subject." (The New York Times Book Review)

"Hypnotizing, horrifying, energetic, lucid prose...." (Providence Observer)

interesting and well researched.

interesting and well researched. interesting and well researched.interesting and well researched.interesting and well researched. thank you.

Education on little understood topic

very informative, on point, and worth your time. sometimes the story gets bogged down talking about the scientists who are actually rather boring people, but otherwise a very good and important thing with solid solutions at the end.

Enthralling!

I couldn't get enough of listening to this book. The narration was excellent though a little dry, but I couldn't get enough of the information. I really enjoyed the fact that it didn't focus so much on the virus itself, but rather developed from the point of view of the medical capabilities in our country, to where it started, how it spread and what was done to curtail the virus.

Shockingly prescient

The book, especially its epilogue, is shockingly prescient. Wish I had read it when first published but not too late now to politically influence the future.

Strangely Calming

This excellent history of yester year’s global pandemic is so well told and semi biographical that interest never lags. I found it almost calming to know that history includes prior instances of governmental missteps, dogged pursuit of causes and cures, popular resistance and political turmoil. We can learn so much from this author and this book.

Superlative

Best combination of compelling story and excellent narrative I’ve experienced on audible. Highly recommend. Looking forward to more from both author and narrator.

lessons not learned

This book was written in 2004 long before our current Covid-19. It does tend to go off in the weeds giving biographies of numerous scientists and medical facilities that prevent me from giving it a perfect score. The author seemed to think the backstory was necessary. It is very interesting to hear the actual experiences with homeopathic remedies during the pandemic (they claimed you cheated and took aspirin if you died) that I've seen promoted in the past year. China lied during SARS so we did we trust them now? People were terrified. It wasn't well understood. The predictions for the next pandemic in the last hour make it work the credit.

More about the science & scientist than anything

This books was more about the science and scientist than anything. The 1st third of the book was prior to 1918 explaining on how science evolved in especially the United States. That was interesting but what it came do to was science couldn't help with this pandemic. People were dropping like flies. The only ones who avoided it are the countries that didn't allow outsiders to come in - and those countries were few. I would have like to have seen the author focus more on what it was like for individuals.

A revolution in science, medicine, and epidemiology contained the pandemic

As we are facing a devastating coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), the lessons of the 1918 influenza pandemic should not be lost on us. Given the then state of medical and scientific knowledge, and technology, there was public terror but significant cooperation amongst physicians and scientists in top notch laboratories worldwide. Although the war imposed
a vail of secrecy and military opposition to the actions of physicians fighting The pandemic, governments did their best to support the medical efforts. Fear of the influenza and not the disease itself posed a threat to civilization. Unlike today, science was not under attack nor truth and transparency victims in the USA.

Great facts, but the organization is tough to follow

This book had such great information in it, and so many topics to learn about, but it seemed a bit scattered in focus. It wasn’t until after Chapter 15 that it really began to discuss the topic in the title of the book. I would still recommend it to anyone, but with the caveat that you have to stick with it before you’ll get the knowledge you seek.