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 twenty-four weeks than AIDS has killed in twenty-four years, more in a year than the Black Death killed in a century.

Ultimately a tale of triumph amid tragedy, this crises provides us with a precise and sobering model as we confront the epidemics looming on our own horizon.

Zusatztext Over a year on The New York Times bestseller list "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 "A sobering account of the 1918 flu epidemic! compelling and timely. The Boston Globe "History brilliantly written... The Great Influenza is a masterpiece." Baton Rouge Advocate Informationen zum Autor John M. Barry is the author of four previous books: Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed Amer­ica; Power Plays: Politics, Football, and Other Blood Sports; The Transformed Cell: Unlocking the Mysteries of Cancer (cowritten with Steven Rosenberg); and The Ambition and the Power: A True Story of Washington. He lives in New Orleans and Wash­ington, D.C. Klappentext #1 New York Times bestseller "Barry will teach you almost everything you need to know about one of the deadliest outbreaks in human history."-Bill Gates, GatesNotes.com "Monumental... an authoritative and disturbing morality tale."-Chicago Tribune The strongest weapon against pandemic is the truth. Read why in the definitive account of the 1918 Flu Epidemic. Magisterial in its breadth of perspective and depth of research, The Great Influenza provides us with a precise and sobering model as we confront the epidemics looming on our own horizon. As Barry concludes, "The final lesson of 1918, a simple one yet one most difficult to execute, is that...those in authority must retain the public's trust. The way to do that is to distort nothing, to put the best face on nothing, to try to manipulate no one. Lincoln said that first, and best. A leader must make whatever horror exists concrete. Only then will people be able to break it apart." 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 twenty-four months than AIDS killed in twenty-four 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 of science and epidemic disease.The Great War had brought Paul Lewis into the navy in 1918 as a lieutenant commander, but he never seemed quite at ease when in his uniform. It never seemed to fit quite right, or to sit quite right, and he was often flustered and failed to respond properly when sailors saluted him. Yet he was every bit a warrior, and he hunted death. When he found it he confronted it, challenged it, tried to pin it in place like a lepidopterist pinning down a butterfly, so he could then dissect it piece by piece, analyze it, and find a way to confound it. He did so often enough that the risks he took became routine. Still, death had never appeared to him as it did now, in mid- September 1918. Row after row of men confronted him in the hospital ward, many of them bloody and dying in some new and awful way. He had been called here to solve a mystery that dumbfounded the clinicians. For Lewis was a scientist. Although a physician he had never practiced on a patient. Instead, a member of the very first generation of American medical scientists, he had spent his life in the laboratory. He had already built an extraordinary career, an international reputation, and he was still young enough to be seen as just coming into his prime. A decade earlier, working with his mentor at the Rockefeller Institute in New York City, he had proved that a virus caused po...

Over a year on The New York Times bestseller list

"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

"A sobering account of the 1918 flu epidemic, compelling and timely. —The Boston Globe

"History brilliantly written... *The Great Influenza is a masterpiece." —*Baton Rouge Advocate  *

Auteur
John M. Barry is the author of four previous books: Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed Amer­ica; Power Plays: Politics, Football, and Other Blood Sports; The Transformed Cell: Unlocking the Mysteries of Cancer (cowritten with Steven Rosenberg); and The Ambition and the Power: A True Story of Washington. He lives in New Orleans and Wash­ington, D.C.

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1 New York Times bestseller

"Barry will teach you almost everything you need to know about one of the deadliest outbreaks in human history."-Bill Gates, GatesNotes.com

"Monumental... an authoritative and disturbing morality tale."-Chicago Tribune

The strongest weapon against pandemic is the truth. Read why in the definitive account of the 1918 Flu Epidemic.

Magisterial in its breadth of perspective and depth of research, The Great Influenza provides us with a precise and sobering model as we confront the epidemics looming on our own horizon. As Barry concludes, "The final lesson of 1918, a simple one yet one most difficult to execute, is that...those in authority must retain the public's trust. The way to do that is to distort nothing, to put the best face on nothing, to try to manipulate no one. Lincoln said that first, and best. A leader must make whatever horror exists concrete. Only then will people be able to break it apart."

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 twenty-four months than AIDS killed in twenty-four 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 of science and epidemic disease.

Résumé
At the height of WWI, 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. This work brings us up to speed on the terrible threat of the avian flu and suggests ways in which we might head off another flu pandemic.

Échantillon de lecture
The Great War had brought Paul Lewis into the navy in 1918 as a lieutenant commander, but he never seemed quite at ease when in his uniform. It never seemed to fit quite right, or to sit quite right, and he was often flustered and failed to respond properly when sailors saluted him. Yet he was every bit a warrior, and he hunted death.

When he found it he confronted it, challenged it, tried to pin it in place like a lepidopterist pinning down a butterfly, so he could then dissect it piece by piece, analyze it, and find a way to confound it. He did so often enough that the risks he took became routine.

Still, death had never appeared to him as it did now, in mid- September 1918. Row after row of men confronted him in the hospital ward, many of them bloody and dying …