Pale Rider

The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World

By: Laura Spinney

Narrated by: Paul Hodgson

Brought to you by Penguin.

With a death toll of between 50 and 100 million people and a global reach, the Spanish flu of 1918–1920 was the greatest human disaster, not only of the twentieth century, but possibly in all of recorded history. And yet, in our popular conception it exists largely as a footnote to World War I.

In Pale Rider, Laura Spinney recounts the story of an overlooked pandemic, tracing it from Alaska to Brazil, from Persia to Spain, and from South Africa to Odessa. She shows how the pandemic was shaped by the interaction of a virus and the humans it encountered; and how this devastating natural experiment put both the ingenuity and the vulnerability of humans to the test.

Laura Spinney demonstrates that the Spanish flu was as significant – if not more so – as two world wars in shaping the modern world; in disrupting, and often permanently altering, global politics, race relations, family structures, and thinking across medicine, religion and the arts.

©2017 Laura Spinney (P)2020 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Both a saga of tragedies and a detective story...Pale Rider is not just an excavation but a reimagining of the past." (Guardian)

brilliant, insightful, important

While the early parts of the book are a little boring, where the course of the disease are charted through different societies and only superficially deals with how they were received, as the title progresses it gets more into details and fills out the picture more in context.

Well written, thoughtfully presented and incredibly interesting.

Mandatory reading for any involved in the present Covid 19 flu

Brilliant writing and use of language. So very cogent in our present situation. Not only a plague history but a world view of its impact on world history.