Spanish Influenza: The Story of the Epidemic That Swept America From the Newspaper Reports of 1918

by Ken Rossignol

This telling of the story of the Spanish Flu of 1918 is best told and understood from the newspaper reports of publications large and small from every corner of the United States. The news reports have been picked at random with an emphasis on selecting news articles that told of effects in the rural, small towns, cities, army camps, navy yards, with armed forces deployed at sea and in France as well as on Indian Reservations.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Health

421 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 15, 2020

About the author

Writing in true crime, maritime history and cruise thrillers occupies most of Ken Rossignol's time.
As a maritime history speaker, Rossignol enjoys meeting audiences around the world and discussing the original news stories of the sinking of the RMS Titanic and other maritime history topics.
In recent years Rossignol has appeared on dozens of ships in the Pacific, Atlantic, Mediterranean and Caribbean discussing the stories of the heroes of the Titanic, the explorations of the new world voyagers, the Bermuda Triangle and the history of piracy.
Rossignol appears at the Titanic Museum Attractions in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee and Branson, Missouri for book signings and to talk with visitors about the RMS Titanic.
He has appeared on Good Morning America, ABC 20/20; ABC World News Tonight and in a 2012 production of Discovery Channel Investigation Motives & Murders Series, A Body in the Bay.
News coverage of Rossignol’s landmark civil rights case, represented by Levine Sullivan Koch & Schulz re: United States Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Rossignol v Voorhaar, 2003, included articles in most major news outlets, as well as a column by syndicated columnists James J. Kilpatrick.
The story of the St. Mary's Today newspaper is now available in ebook and paperback: The Story of THE RAG! The book includes nearly 200 editorial cartoons that appeared over the years.
A strong highway safety advocate, Rossignol also publishes the DWIHitParade.com which focuses on impaired driving and the monthly publication, The Chesapeake.
News coverage of Rossignol’s DWIHitParade won an Emmy in 2012 for WJLA reporter Jay Korff and coverage of the St. Mary’s Today newspaper by WUSA reporter Bruce Leshan was awarded an Emmy in 2000.

Reviews

[Tim Duff · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book uses newspaper reports from the time period to tell the story of the Spanish Flu and what people were doing at the time of it. It was amazing to me the correlation to our time with COVID-19 and how we do not learn from history and are doomed to repeat it.

I gave the book a three rating due to the fact that the tales got very repetitive as the book went on.

[Tarissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Follow the Spanish Flu news, straight from 1918...

I always enjoy Ken's books, and this one was great. I'd been looking for a good book to read on the Spanish Flu of 1918, and I learned a lot from Ken Rossignol's book.

The book starts by leading you through newspaper articles in January 1918, and guides you through the year of the ups and downs, the spikes, and some other crazy things that took place. You'll learn many new historical facts from it. Really good.

[Karin · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I read these articles, I kept mentally changing Spanish Influenza to Coronavirus. I looked up Coronavirus Today Update by State on my computer and found headlines similar to those in the book. The biggest difference I noticed was that they named names during the Spanish Influenza. That way people could check to see if they had come in contact with anyone who had been infected. It was also interesting to see that there was a second wave of the Spanish Influenza. I enjoyed the story and recommend the book.

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s interesting how a random selection of news stories can convey the brutal destruction of a pandemic. Such amazing parallels to what we are seeing today with the coronavirus: disagreements between doctors, heart-breaking death notices, the necessity of masks, and the rush for a vaccine. Excellent pictures as well. My Kindle doesn’t support pictures so I read the eBook on my iPad using the free Kindle app.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent research sets the mood of the times with well connected newspaper accounts written at the time. Fascinating and real world reporting on a killer epidemic which devastated families and neighborhoods plus towns and cities.
A deadly pandemic that puts current COVID-19 into perspective. Well worth the time to read.

[Sharon Skellie]

Almost like history repeating itself. Good info.

[Kathi Levine · Rating 3 out of 5]

History repeats itself

This book provides an interesting look back at the 1918 flu pandemic, the thinking at the time and how various communities handled it. We got a look at public health documents, newspaper articles and pamphlets along with some commentary. From a historical and public health perspective it was quite interesting, however most of the book was providing information from different communities covering only about 1 month of the entire pandemic. Way too much detail, too many death notices provided for the more casual reader.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poorly organized and frequent typos. I know he wanted to let the news speak for itself, but some contributions from the author would have helped me understand why certain articles were included. Was it absolutely necessary to include so many obituaries? It just felt like lazy writing with little to no research on the topic. This was like "reading" a box of newspaper clippings on a loosely related topic. I had hoped to learn more about how different cities dealt with the pandemic and how they were impacted during and afterwards. This had hardly anything to say about any of that.

[Virginia Pierce · Rating 1 out of 5]

Clippings to clip through

Just finished John Barry's The Great Influenza, so this suffers by comparison. At the same time am sheltering from Covid-19 and the smoke of California wildfires. At 75, I have going through a half century of Holland scanning them in groups of 4 to 6 for posterity onto the cloud. My grouping is organized such that my prodigy but not likely others wil! recognize and understand it. I find this book to be quite similar in its DISorganization.

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Exhaustive Report on Spanish Flu Epixemiy

While this chronicle of the Spanish Flu epidemic is interesting, it is excruciatingly repetitive. It would have greatly benefited from some serious editing. Equally as interesting was the difference between the newspaper styles of 1918 and those of 2020 as well as the difference between the styles of urban and rural newspapers.

[Dianne McMahan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very hard book to read it was page after page of persons who had died during the influenza of 1918.
Just not my cup of tea,I prefer a storyline.
If you want plain facts,on this subject it's here.
I really like this Author too.He's written some good books that I have enjoyed

[sabrina briggs]

Interesting

It was interesting but suggestions alot. Would recommend it to someone to read. I enjoyed the way articles and obituaries were written down to the amount of time ok lived to years, months and days.

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read The kindle version. I don't know if that makes a difference or not. But did anyone proof read this? The info by and large was interesting, but I found myself trying to decipher what was supposed to be written. Please, someone fix this.

[Jodell Quamme]

Did not finish