[.ca] Great Influenza (ISBN 0143034480)

Dense with detail, full of melodrama:
I read many reviews of this book, and finally had to buy it. This is a book you can easily put down! Dense with detail and many fascinating characters, but ruined by the melodramatic style. Along the lines of: " Then suddenly, it struck with incredible force!" Not an actual quotation, but you get the idea. Over and over again he uses this same device. It ultimately becomes tiresome. I'm about halfway through, and I have not picked it up in about 3 weeks. Hold out for the (used) paperback!

Interesting but yes, flawed!:
I've read some of the other reviews and agree with most of them. The history itself is dramatic enough and does not require a capping statement every few paragraphs dramatically restating the obvious conclusion Mr. Barry has drawn. Mr. Barry does not take a non-partisan view of this period in history and makes assertions about President Wilson that are not part of the popular view of his administration and heritage. While reading this somewhat biased history of the Great Influenza epidemic, I found an incredible error on page 303 where Mr. Barry refers to "George Pershhing, in charge of the American Expeditionary Force". I believe, he is referring to General John J. "Blackjack" Pershing, one of America's most famous military men. Finding this obvious flaw makes me distrustful of the rest of the history Mr. Barry quotes. I have read other books about this same topic and have learned some new details from this book but like other reviewers, I think that there are many details regarding the rest of the world, and the rest of the story, that are left out.

a mesmerizing book:
This has just become one of my favorite books. It is a compelling read, like a real-life Stephen King novel. But it's built around a lot more than just plot and character. It also gives you tremendous insight into how the body works, how viruses work, and how diseases interact with the environment--- and it makes clear that one of the most important elements of the environment is the political climate. This book tells you more about Woodrow Wilson than most history books on World War I. Finally, it's extraordinarily well-researched and accurate: a doctor-friend who is actually a pulmonary expert told me it not only gets things right, but taught him something. I think it's obvious by now I love this book.

Just the flu:
Wow. The Great Influenza sort of blew me away. Like most people I've heard of the 1918 influenza, but also like most I've never actually read anything on the epidemic. My first introduction to the topic came as a young nurse working on a neurology ward where Parkinson's Disease was diagnosed and treated. At the time it was believed to have arisen as a late neurological response to that infection. For all I know they may still think so. During the swine flu epidemic and the controversy over whether the vaccine had caused a rise in the incidence of Guillian Barre, the so-called French polio, the 1918 flu was frequently mentioned. After reading Mr. Barry's book I can certainly see why. What amazes me most about the pandemic of 1918 is not its virulence so much as its repercussions. It definitely occurred during the most inopportune time, almost proving Murphey's law that if anything can go wrong it will and at the worst possible time. Probably one of the most significant outcomes of the flu seems to have been the effect it had on the peace terms. One is left to wonder if Wilson had not been affected by the flu in so damaging a way and at so crucial a time, whether World War II could have been avoided. Moreover much is made of the nihilism of the 1920s, that lost generation between the two world wars. The young of the era seemed to have gone through a loss of innocence that is often attributed to the effects of the WWI experience and the death of the overconfident 19th century way of life. It seems to me that far more damage to the confidence of young adults was due to the effects of the influenza epidemic. Certainly Barry's discussion makes the character of the 1920s and 1930s much clearer to me. The differential effect of the flu on the various age groups, suggests much about the effect of the virus on the immune system. Having had to manage patients with ARDS in ICU, most of them very young people like those in 1918, I can hardly imagine what it might have been like to be a nurse during a time prior to mechanical ventilation and sophisticated drug therapy. We lose ARDS patients with an unpleasant frequency even now. In 1918 I don't know how one could have helped even a single patient survive it. It had to have been appallingly painful to the staff, overworked as they were, even ill themselves as some were, to watch a patient die that way especially as the author points out again and again because so many of these patients were in the prime of life and had so much to live for yet. I certainly know what its effect has been on me over the years. Although the author attempts to reassure the reader that although we may have another similar pandemic, the outcome will be less devastating because of our modern medical facilities and experience, I can't help but think of the Titanic! It couldn't sink, you know, because it was the product of the most modern and up to date technology of its time. Maybe MRSA (methacillin resistant staph aureus) and VRE (vanco resistant enterococci) will be our armageddon! A serious and fascinating book. One every health care worker should read.

Business lessons:
On a recent flight I read a good book called, "The Great Influenza - The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History" by John M. Barry. This is probably not the best book to read on a plane where people are coughing. From the slip cover: In the winter of 1918, history's most lethal influenza of viruses was born. Over the next year it flourished killing as many as 100 million people. It took me almost 100 pages to get into the book because of medical jargon, a large number of characters, technical research, and historical footnotes. After that I could not put it down for the next 350 pages. The book not only tells the story of this great flu but it tells of the social impact and how isolated people became and how communities were no longer helping each other. It is particularly interesting in light of one of the books I am listening to on CD called, "Social Intelligence" by Daniel Goleman that talks of the importance of social interaction on health and well being. In some communities, 60% or 70% of the population was wiped out. Medical researchers were not well connected and did not collaborate well during the crisis and medicine was way behind where it is today. (Although I do not think it is as far ahead as we would like to think.) In that day, in some cases they still bled people to try to help them get better. The book made me think of my own mortality (something that I tend to fight, hence the exercise, etc.). It also made me think of the social system that we have. The book is extremely well researched with 50 pages of footnotes. Although this is not a business book, it was certainly interesting and I learned a lot. I do think that businesses need to think about what happens in the next pandemic. We all need a plan.