Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.20 (599 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 1478992042 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 336 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2014-06-14 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Nevertheless, it exists in our memory as a mere footnote to World War IIn Pale Rider, Laura Spinney recounts the story of this overlooked pandemic, tracing it from Alaska to Brazil, from Persia to Spain, and from South Africa to Odessa. Drawing on the latest research in history, virology, epidemiology, psychology, and economics, Laura Spinney narrates a catastrophe that changed humanity for decades to come. In doing so, she reveals that the Spanish flu was as significant--if not more so--as the two world wars in shaping the modern world by disrupting, and often permanently altering, global politics, race relations, family structures, and ingenuity across medicine, religion, and the arts.. Through the point of view of those who lived through it, she shows how the flu was shaped by the interaction of the virus with the humans it encountered and how this devastating natural experiment put both the vulnerability and the ingenuity of mankind to the test. With a death
Laura Spinney is a science journalist and a literary novelist. Her oral history portrait of a European city, Rue Centrale, was published in 2013 in French and English.. She has published two novels in English, and her writing on science has appeared in National Geographic, Nature, The Economist, and The Telegraph, among others
This fascinating, frightening book will begin to redress that dangerous historical imbalance." -- Julie McDowall * Herald * "Spinney, an admired science journalist, conjures the drama of the Spanish flu Pale Rider is not just an excavation but a reimagining of the past The renowned virologist John Oxford concurs: "H1N1 has a proven capacity to kill," he says, "and we don't need to be sitting here taking it like they did in 1918." Spinney has ably lent her pen to the cause." -- Colin Grant * Guardian * . Pale Rider sets the bar very high." * Nature * "Influenza, like all viruses, is a parasite. The main fascination of her wonderfully absorbing book lies in its international comparisons, reinforced by harrowing narratives of personal exper