Very, Very, Very Dreadful: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918From National Book Award finalist Albert Marrin comes a fascinating look at the history and science of the deadly 1918 flu pandemic--and its chilling and timely resemblance to the worldwide coronavirus outbreak. In spring of 1918, World War I was underway, and troops at Fort Riley, Kansas, found themselves felled by influenza. By the summer of 1918, the second wave struck as a highly contagious and lethal epidemic and within weeks exploded into a pandemic, an illness that travels rapidly from one continent to another. It would impact the course of the war, and kill many millions more soldiers than warfare itself. Of all diseases, the 1918 flu was by far the worst that has ever afflicted humankind; not even the Black Death of the Middle Ages comes close in terms of the number of lives it took. No war, no natural disaster, no famine has claimed so many. In the space of eighteen months in 1918-1919, about 500 million people--one-third of the global population at the time--came down with influenza. The exact total of lives lost will never be known, but the best estimate is between 50 and 100 million. In this powerful book, filled with black and white photographs, nonfiction master Albert Marrin examines the history, science, and impact of this great scourge--and the possibility for another worldwide pandemic today. A Chicago Public Library Best Book of the Year! |
Contents
| 1 | |
Diseases of War | 33 |
Drowning in the Second Wave | 63 |
Influenza and American Society | 84 |
To the Bitter End | 116 |
A Detective Story | 138 |
Notes | 167 |
Further Reading | 183 |
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Common terms and phrases
1918 Influenza Allied America's Forgotten Pandemic American Antonine Plague armistice bacteria Barry became Billy Sunday bird flu Black Death blood bodies British bubonic plague Byerly called camps cause cells coughing Crosby crowded Cruel Wind dead demic devil virus died doctors Epidemic of 1918 Étaples fever Flu Epidemic Flu Pandemic flu virus fluenza Fort Riley France French front genes German germs History Honigsbaum hospital Hultin human Ibid Iezzoni immune system infection Infectious Diseases Influenza 1918 Influenza Epidemic Influenza Pandemic killed killer Living with Enza lungs Man's Land masks Medicine military million mutated nurses October officer patients Pettit and Bailie physicians pigs Plague Public Health Reports rats researchers Rites of Spring scientists sick sneezing soldiers Spanish Flu Spanish Influenza Spanish Lady spread Supplement 3 2010 Swine Flu Taubenberger tion troops U.S. army United Updating the Accounts vaccine Vaughan victims virologists viruses wave Wilson World wounded wrote York