Albert Marrin > Quotes

“Words have consequences.”
― Albert Marrin

“No other disease, no war, no natural disaster, no famine comes close to the great pandemic. In the space of eighteen months in 1918–1919, about 500 million people, one-third of the human race at the time, came down with influenza. The exact total of lives lost will never be known. An early estimate, made in 1920, claimed 21.5 million died worldwide. Since then, researchers have been continually raising the number as they find new information. Today, the best estimate of flu deaths in 1918–1919 is between 50 million and 100 million worldwide, and probably closer to the latter figure. 7”
― Albert Marrin, Very, Very, Very Dreadful: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918

“By the fall of 1918, it was clear that a nation's prosperity, even its very survival, depended on securing a safe, abundant supply of cheap oil.”
― Albert Marrin, Black Gold: The Story of Oil in Our Lives

“Throughout the pandemic, the nation lacked a uniform policy about gathering places, and there was no central authority with the power to make and enforce rules that everyone had to obey. Each community acted on its own, doing as its elected officials thought best.12”
― Albert Marrin, Very, Very, Very Dreadful: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918

“Rising demand for oil exposed Europe, and later America, to oil shocks - serious interruptions in supply. Like a pebble tossed into a pond, an oil shock creats ripples, or effects, felt everywhere.

Oil shocks have two causes. The first is natural, because existing oil fields may not yield enough to satisfy demand. Scarcity results in higher prices for oil products, reducing our standard of living. Natural scarcity was not a problem in the world's major producing areas until recently.

The second cause of oil shocks is political. Political shocks happen when governments of oil-producing countries reduce or halt supply to gain the upper hand in dealings with other governments. This is the case in the Middle East, where oil has often mixed with politics, religion, and blood. The reasons for this have shaped the history of recent times.”
― Albert Marrin

“It is in our best interest to. . . embark on a revolutionary change that will lead us away from oil dependency rather than drag our feet and suffer the costs of becoming growingly dependent on a diminishing resource.' Truer words were never written.”
― Albert Marrin

“White Christians often explained the disaster in a time-honored way: it was God's punishment of humanity for its sings. To the seven deadly sins--anger, greed, lust, envy, pride, laziness, gluttony--they added an eighth sin: 'worshiping science.”
― Albert Marrin, Very, Very, Very Dreadful: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918

“In the United States, influenza death rates were so high that the average life span fell by twelve years, from fifty-one in 1917 to thirty-nine in 1918. If you were a “doughboy”—slang for an American soldier—you had a better chance of dying in bed from flu or flu-related complications than from enemy action.”
― Albert Marrin, Very, Very, Very Dreadful: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918

“Flu pandemics are nothing new. Medical historians think the first one struck in 1510, infecting Asia, Africa, Europe, and the New World. Between the years 1700 and 1900, there were at least sixteen pandemics, some of them killing up to one million people. Yet these were tame compared to the 1918 calamity. It was by far the worst thing that has ever happened to humankind; not even the Black Death of the Middle Ages comes close in the number of lives it took. A 1994 report by the World Health Organization pulled no punches. The 1918 pandemic, it said, “killed more people in less time than any other disease before or since.” It was the “most deadly disease event in the history of humanity.”
― Albert Marrin, Very, Very, Very Dreadful: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918

“America experienced its first oil shock. Within days of the cutoff, oil prices rose from $2.90 to $11.65 a barrel; gasoline prices soared from 20 cents to $1.20 a gallon, an all-time high. Across America, fuel shortages forced factories to close early and airlines to cancel flights. Filling stations posted signs: 'Sorry, No Gas Today.' If a station did have gasoline, motorists lined up before sunrise to buy a few gallons; owners limited the amount sold to each customer. Motorists grew impatient. Fistfights broke out, and occasionally, gunfire. President Nixon called for America to end its dependence on foreign oil. 'Let us set as our national goal. . . that by the end of this decade we will have developed the potential to meet our own energy needs without depending on any foreign energy source,' he said. We have still not met this goal.”
― Albert Marrin

“When the next pandemic comes, as it surely will someday, perhaps we will be ready to meet it. If we are not, the outcome will be very, very, very dreadful.”
― Albert Marrin, Very, Very, Very Dreadful: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918

“Edward Jenner’s discovery of vaccination drew harsh criticism from the pulpit. Clergymen denounced the doctor for having put himself above God. Only the Almighty, they said, sends illness and only the Almighty cures it. Vaccination, critics charged, was “a diabolical operation,” and its inventor was “flying in the face of Providence”
― Albert Marrin, Very, Very, Very Dreadful: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918

“Nowadays, the disease claims, on average, 36,000 Americans each year, out of a population of 320 million. Contrast this with another number: 35,092 Americans died in motor vehicle accidents in 2015.”
― Albert Marrin, Very, Very, Very Dreadful: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918

“George Templeton Strong, a wealthy attorney and leader of high society, missed the old man. “Osawatomie John Brown,”
― Albert Marrin, A Volcano Beneath the Snow: John Brown's War Against Slavery

“Today, we share no fewer than 300 diseases with domesticated animals. For example, humans get 45 diseases from cattle, including tuberculosis; 46 from sheep and goats; 42 from pigs; 35 from horses, including the common cold; and 26 from poultry. Rats and mice carry 33 diseases to humans, including bubonic plague. Sixty-five diseases, including measles, originated in man’s best friend, the dog. We can still get parasitic worms from pet dogs and cats. That is why it is not a good idea to kiss a pet on the mouth or sleep with it in bed.4”
― Albert Marrin, Very, Very, Very Dreadful: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918

“For propagandists, whatever promoted the Allied cause was true, whether factual or not. What counted was the noble end--victory--not the sordid means of achieving it. 'Truth and falsehood are arbitrary terms,' declared a CPI official. 'There is nothing in experience to tell us that one is always preferable to the other....There are lifeless truths and vital lies....The force of an idea lies in its inspirational value. It matters very little if it is true or false.”
― Albert Marrin, Very, Very, Very Dreadful: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918

“Higginson served until 1864, and recorded his adventures in a book based on a diary he wrote while campaigning in the South, Army Life in a Black Regiment (1870). The book is a classic of Civil War literature.”
― Albert Marrin, A Volcano Beneath the Snow: John Brown's War Against Slavery

“God has given us a conscience superior to all law,” said Wendell Phillips. The individual’s conscience and the Golden Rule top any written law. There is such a thing as righteous lawbreaking.”
― Albert Marrin, A Volcano Beneath the Snow: John Brown's War Against Slavery

“cringed. What made him cringe was not fear but empathy, a basic human quality that allows one to identify with another’s feelings.”
― Albert Marrin, A Volcano Beneath the Snow: John Brown's War Against Slavery

“Let not harsh tongues,
that wag in vain,
Discourage you.
In spite of pain,
Be like the cactus,
which through rain,
And storm, and thunder,
can remain.

—"Be Like the Cactus", a poem by Kimii Nagata”
― Albert Marrin, Uprooted: The Japanese American Experience During World War II

“ ‘A house divided against itself cannot stand,’ ” he said in a high-pitched voice. “I believe this government cannot endure,”
― Albert Marrin, A Volcano Beneath the Snow: John Brown's War Against Slavery

“Abraham Lincoln on October 1, 1858, less than four months after his famous “House Divided” speech.”
― Albert Marrin, A Volcano Beneath the Snow: John Brown's War Against Slavery

“For young survivors of the pandemic, life would never be the same. Like shell shocked soldiers, they bore emotional scars. These children had similar experiences and shared similar feelings of anxiety, of terror, of despair.”
― Albert Marrin, Very, Very, Very Dreadful: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918

“Influenza robbed countless youngsters of normal childhoods. For them, attending school had been a regular part of life. The pandemic, however, forced local authorities to decide whether to keep public schools open.”
― Albert Marrin, Very, Very, Very Dreadful: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918

“You could never trust a politician, Brown said, because “he was always ready to sacrifice his principles for his advantage.” Presidents and members of Congress were, to him, “fiends clothed in human form,” for they compromised with evil.”
― Albert Marrin, A Volcano Beneath the Snow: John Brown's War Against Slavery

“goods—sugar, tobacco, rice, and indigo, a purple dye—to sell in Europe.”
― Albert Marrin, A Volcano Beneath the Snow: John Brown's War Against Slavery

“Toward the end of 1837, a murder shook the nation. On November 7, a mob in Alton, Illinois, killed Elijah P. Lovejoy, owner of the Alton Observer, an abolitionist newspaper.”
― Albert Marrin, A Volcano Beneath the Snow: John Brown's War Against Slavery

“And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him, and said, the LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valor. —Judges 6:12”
― Albert Marrin, A Volcano Beneath the Snow: John Brown's War Against Slavery

“cause. There will be no more peace in this land until slavery is done for. I will give them something else to do than to extend slave territory.”
― Albert Marrin, A Volcano Beneath the Snow: John Brown's War Against Slavery

“Glory, glory, hallelujah! His soul is marching on!”
― Albert Marrin, A Volcano Beneath the Snow: John Brown's War Against Slavery