So should you be wondering what a REAL epidemic looks like, this was the big one. It was really bad and it happened before medical science understood what was causing it. The Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918 is the gold standard of modern epidemics and this book is a solid account of what happened. Revived review as a public service during the current Coronavirus outbreak. Using firsthand accounts, Spinney's vivid narrative shows how the Spanish flu evolved as a result of the humans it encountered and how this devastating virus exposed our vulnerability and put the ingenuity of mankind to the test. In Pale Rider, Laura Spinney recounts the story of this overlooked pandemic, tracing it from Alaska to Brazil, from Persia to Spain, and from South Africa to Odessa. Nevertheless, it exists in our memory as a mere footnote to World War I. With a death toll between fifty and one hundred million people across the globe, the Spanish flu of 1918-1920 was one of the greatest human disasters of all time. In doing so, she reveals that the Spanish flu was as significant-if not more so-as the two world wars in shaping the modern world by disrupting, and often permanently altering, global politics, race relations, family structures, and ingenuity across medicine, religion, and the arts.
Through the point of view of those who lived through it, she shows how the flu was shaped by the interaction of the virus with the humans it encountered and how this devastating natural experiment put both the vulnerability and the ingenuity of mankind to the test.ĭrawing on the latest research in history, virology, epidemiology, psychology, and economics, Laura Spinney narrates a catastrophe that changed humanity for decades to come. Nevertheless, it exists in our memory as a mere footnote to World War I
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