Influenza 1918

by Lynette Izzoni

Looks at the impact of this viral epidemic that forced businesses, schools, and churches to close, and describes how individuals and public officials reacted to the health crisis

Genres: History, Nonfiction

256 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1999

Reviews

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fasinating story about the worst pandemic in history.
I have a personal interest in this event of 1918 since my aunt at the young age of 8 died of influenza.
It is only a matter of time that this type o pandemic can happen again.

[Henry DeForest · Rating 5 out of 5]

For a book published in 1999, this book felt incredibly relevant in light of 2020. Iezzoni picks up many narrative threads in this book and expertly follows them as a means of considering the Spanish Flu, an astonishingly tragic illness of global history that was in many ways eclipsed by the gravity of World War I. This book heavily incorporates first-hand accounts of this pandemic, which greatly aids in the immersion of the text. It was quite interesting to see the direct parallels between the Spanish Flu (whom Iezzoni makes a character of sorts—often personifying it as "The Spanish Lady") and the Covid-19 pandemic. These parallels included things such as disagreements regarding masks, the shutting down of theaters, quarantining expectations, etc. Overall, the book was a well-written account that has become even more interesting in light of recent history.

[Estelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up last week at the library on a whim, I don't usuallly read any medical lit or anything like it. It is a pretty basic yet thorough coverage of the 1918 Spanish influenza worldwide epidemic. Among the many things I learned: a more appropriate name for the epidemic would be the Kansas flu, as it most likely started in Kansas in Spring 1918, travelled to Europe on American war ships, mutated insanely in a short time---into a more virulent and incredibly lethal strain of flu, and then came back to the U.S. on military war ships in fall of 1918.
I recall hearing about this flu epidemic in school, briefly, in passing. It was not a subject we spent *any* time on, however here are some interesting facts:
In ten months, 675,000 Americans died of Spanish influenza. By comparison, in World Wars I and II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, an estimated 423,000 Americans perished....that is a combined total from all four wars. In ten months, 675,000 Americans died. Of the flu. It is astounding--this book chronicles the lives of individuals affected by the pandemic, including horrific personal stories as well as giving a likely trail of the flu's spread across the globe and the chaos that it spread. The book also covers much of the history of the end of WW I in the fall of 1918, including the Nov. 11 Armistice and the effect of Pres. Woodrow Wilson's bout with flu on his politics at a critical moment in history.
This may not be the most thorough book on the epidemic, but it reads like a good starter book for geeks like me interested in delving into this subject. Incidentally, I had H1N1 flu last fall and I thought (prior to reading this book) that H1N1 was a new flu strain....turns out that the swine flu (H1N1) likely began in Spring 1918 after another strain of flu mutated drastically. Spanish influenza is now dead, but scientists believe that it was a sort of "superpowered" form of the newly formed H1N1 virus.
Now I want to go watch "Outbreak" and freak out. Awesome.

[Susan Olesen · Rating 3 out of 5]

When you read too many books on a subject, especially history, it's hard to remember if you've read them or not. There are only so many survivors, so many photos, so many documents to research. I don't think I'd read this one, but so much is the same. It's a nice, easy-to-read, thorough evaluation of the flu pandemic of 1918, which killed more people than all the wars combined - but it's almost obliterated from social memory. The book feels it's because of the overwhelming horror - 3,000 dead *a week* in Philly ALONE. Bodies piled up in the streets, and like the English plagues of the 1300s, people literally had to bring out their dead to body carts, to be hauled off to mass graves. And like modern flu, it was the common H1N1 flu virus - but the first appearance, so no one had any immunity whatsoever. Will we ever see a pandemic like that again? Absolutely. This year, next year, twenty years - but it will come.

Bottom line: GET YOUR VACCINES.

[Vivien · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book on the 1918 pandemic. I originally saw the American Experience documentary on the Flu and that is probably why this expanded book worked so well for me.
Most of the books on the Flu were written in 1999 - 2004 and this is probably my favorite one because of the plethora of primary interviews done with child survivors of the pandemic. Some of the epidemiology is still in contention because the science of virology is still so new- but overall I enjoyed how this book and the documentary begins to gather the different strands that worked together to hide this incredible episode from our history books and collective memory.

[Jil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not too much hard science, very much a "companion book". I liked this American Experience episode and was hoping for more details. The author actually reapeats herself in several places in the last 3rd of the book, as if she were stretching to hit a certain number of pages. I have a number of relatives that were victims of the pandemic and would like to know more about it. The influenza book by Alfred Crosby was recommended to me as well as listed in Ms. Izzoni's bibliography. I think I'll try it next.

[West Hartford Public Library · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up this book after reading Twilight because I wanted to know more about the illness that led to Edward Cullen becoming a vampire! I was surprised that this book about the H1N1 flu read more like fiction than nonfiction. Izzoni blended medical information, political and historical events, and personal anecdotes in an engrossing way. I could not put this down. Highly recommended.