Flu: A Social History of Influenza

by Tom Quinn

This fascinating book explores the havoc caused by the world's most deadly virus - and the destruction left behind in its wake.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Medical

223 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2008

Reviews

[Dylan George · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book to be lacking in any real depth. Not necessarily a bad book if this is your first exposure to the history of influenza, or infectious disease more broadly.

[Jeff Sedlak · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book at the beginning and the end but the middle totally lost my interest with all of the quotes from people in the 1800s and early 1900s. Seemed pretty excessive and also didn't care to try an decipher the language either.

[Robin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not what I expected or hoped for. The book looks at the history of influenza and how it affected society through the centuries. I was hoping for a lengthy description of how the 1918 influenza pandemic affected the world (and especially the US), but this book barely mentioned it. Disappointing.

[Andrew Hodgson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short, but a lot of repeat information. A decent, minor work of scholarship that reads like a thesis paper stretched into a book.

[Andy · Rating 1 out of 5]

For a book that supposedly differentiates itself as a social history, there is a notable lack of consideration of social factors. And the author's style is not as entertaining as that of Barry or many of the other previous flu writers listed in the bibliography. So it's not at all clear what this adds to an already crowded field. The biggest problem though is that it gets the science wrong and once again repeats the standard nonsense about viruses, for example how they keep mutating until they can perfectly "adapt to man" and kill us as efficiently as possible.

[Meghan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The reason I gave this two stars was because I could barely notice any social aspects, which was what I needed it for. Most of it was more on the scientific side. That being said, the scientific information was very thorough and I learned a lot about several influenza epidemics and pandemics. The pace of the book was fine until the last couple of chapters where it seemed to drag on.

[Tonya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative. Yet not panic-stricken! Very good!