The Great Influenza

Description

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. 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. Magisterial in its breadth of perspective and depth of research and now revised to reflect the growing danger of the avian flu, The Great Influenza is ultimately a tale of triumph amid tragedy, which provides us with a precise and sobering model as we confront the epidemics looming on our own horizon.

Description

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. 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. Revised to reflect the growing danger of the avian flu, this is ultimately a tale of triumph amid tragedy, providing us with a precise and sobering model as we confront the epidemics looming on our own horizon.--From publisher description.

First Sentence

ON SEPTEMBER 12, 1876, the crowd overflowing the auditorium of Baltimore's Academy of Music was in a mood of hopeful excitement, but excitement without frivolity.

Subjects

Other Editions

• The Great Influenza: The story of the deadliest pandemic in historyPenguin Books2005-10-04
• The great influenzaViking2004-01-01
• The Great InfluenzaHardcoverViking Adult2004-02-05
• Great InfluenzaPenguin Publishing Group2005-01-01
• The Great InfluenzaPenguin (Non-Classics)2005-02-01
• The Great InfluenzaPenguin Highbridge (Aud)2006-03-16