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Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World, by Laura Spinney
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Review
"Impressive...Set against the devastating backdrop of global contagion, it is individual lives and deaths, discovered in letters, diaries, biographies and memoirs, that epitomize this rich account. Spinney invokes potent images...Along with exemplary research, Spinney's narrative is packed with fascinating, quirky detail...As the centenary of this monumental event approaches, other volumes on the pandemic will undoubtedly appear. Pale Rider sets the bar very high."―Nature"A saga of tragedies and a detective story... Pale Rider is not just an excavation but a reimagining of the past. As the book progresses, the flu is cast increasingly as a character that crops up Zelig-like at important moments in history, altering the course of events previously unattributed to it.... Compelling."―The Guardian"A book about the Spanish flu could so easily be dreary-complex pathology interwoven with pervasive tragedy. Not so Pale Rider. I've seldom had so much fun reading about people dying. Laura Spinney, a science journalist, is adept at explaining arcane scientific research in an entertaining, comprehensible way. ...With superb investigative skill and a delightfully light-hearted writing style, Spinney extends her analysis far beyond the relatively short duration of the plague....Spinney finds it odd that we know so little about the worst calamity to affect the human race. So do I. There are tens of thousands of books about the First World War, yet that flu is, arguable, more relevant to our world. While global war is, we hope, a thing of the past, global pestilence hovers like a vulture."―The Times"Wide-sweeping... Spinney is a storyteller with a science writer's cabinet of facts. Retracing influenza's death trail over nine continents, she attempts to show how the flu affected not only the war-torn West but also remote communities in South Africa, China, and Brazil. The book reveals how desperately and differently people reacted and how gravely the flu influenced the modern world, touching everything from medicine to business and from politics to poetry."―Science"Influenza, like all viruses, is a parasite. Laura Spinney traces its long shadow over human history... Ms Spinney ties the virulence of Spanish flu to its genetic irregularities and does a good job of explaining containment strategies through epidemiology... In Europe and North America the first world war killed more than Spanish flu; everywhere else the reverse is true. Yet most narratives focus on the West... Ms Spinney's book goes some way to redress the balance."―The Economist"This riveting study plots the course of the deadliest pandemic in history."―The Sunday Times"Ambitious...Spinney delves into the unfolding tragedy around the globe, looking at Brazil, China, Iran, India, and Russia. There is fascinating detail."―The Spectator"An excruciating report on the global disaster...Absorbing...Spinney's important book does not attempt to offer light reading. No less than four pandemics are predicted in the 21st century. At least one will take the form of flu. Vaccination is not cheap, because the flu virus is constantly mutating. Annual vaccines currently offer the best protection. Britain does still possess a National Health Service. The enduring message of Spinney's magisterial work is to underline just how crucial that remarkable service is to the future security of an unusually privileged nation. Let's hope the author's book is read with care by Theresa May."―The Observer"Spinney's book is intensely readable, and instead of a strictly chronological account she circles around history, epidemiology and culture to give a panoramic portrait of the previous century's most deadly pandemic. We are probably due another one of these any day now, this is a great way to see what the future holds."―The Awl "A masterful account of the possible origins, spread, and cultural consequences of this modern-day plague."―Geographical
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About the Author
Laura Spinney is a science journalist and a literary novelist. 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. Her oral history portrait of a European city, Rue Centrale, was published in 2013 in French and English.
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Product details
Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: PublicAffairs; 1 edition (September 12, 2017)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1610397673
ISBN-13: 978-1610397674
Product Dimensions:
6.5 x 1.2 x 9.8 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.2 out of 5 stars
65 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#240,113 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
A very interesting book and a useful counterpart to The Plague of the Spanish Lady, which I read decades ago. It takes a more global, less western-centric view of the Spanish Flu, which makes it clear that it was probably the worst disease ever to hit humankind. Full of gobsmacking statistics but also moving personal testimony, but slightly cool in its overall tone.
Overall I found this book to be a compelling account of the Spanish flu pandemic and the it's ramifications, but with a couple of caveats.As some other reviews have pointed out, the narrative does jump around temporally a little more than seems necessary and can be a little bit disorienting. Overall the author is an accomplished writer and overcomes this for the most part.I did find a couple of factual errors. Although relatively minor, factual errors always raise the question as to whether there could be others that I didn't pick up on while reading. The first is simply a geographical error when describing the relationship of Haskell County, KS to Camp Funston. The books description would place Haskell County in Missouri rather than western Kansas. The second factual error had to do with the estimation of death from the flu in Russia. The author indicates that there were 450,000 documented deaths in Russia which "corresponds to 0.2 percent of the Russian population at that time." Although I am not a statistician I am pretty sure that would extrapolate to a population of 225 million which is clearly incorrect.I also found some the attempts to link the flu pandemic to other world events or cultural events to seem like a bit of a stretch. The author correctly points out from the beginning that the pandemic has not received the regard that it deserves as such a major event of the 20th century, however she does seem to be trying to over inflate it's impact in some areas. This would be a minor quibble however in my opinion.Overall this is an important book and worth the time to read.
If you're unfamiliar with the history of the Spanish Flu of 1918, or if your understanding of the pandemic is rooted in what you read many years ago, you may be unfamiliar with its tragic dimensions. British science journalist Laura Spinney sets us all straight in Pale Rider:The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World. "The Spanish flu infected one in three people on earth," she writes, "or 500 million human beings. Between the first case recorded on 4 March 1918, and the last sometime in March 1920, it killed 50-100 million people, or between 2.5 and 5 per cent of the global population." Erupting in three waves, the killer flu brought about social, political, and economic changes reminiscent of those of the Black Death nearly 600 years earlier. And its impact was global, whereas the Black Death brought disaster largely to Europe and Asia.The Spanish Flu was, Spinney asserts, "the biggest disaster of the twentieth century." In all likelihood, the disease killed more than World Wars I and II combined. We Westerners may fail to recognize the pandemic's catastrophic scope because Europe and North America "reported the lowest death rates, on average, so their experiences were atypical." In India, for example, including present-day Pakistan and Bangladesh, "the rate was ten times that in America." Spinney reports that "an estimated 500,000 children were orphaned in South Africa alone," and as many as 18 million Indians died in the pandemic, about 6 per cent of its population. However, the author's emphasis is less on the sheer numbers of casualties than it is on the multiple effects on society at large. For instance, she believes that the flu helped push India closer toward independence (and of course explains her reasoning in detail). Her exploration of the long-term consequences is sobering.It may be difficult for us today to grasp just how different the world was merely a century ago when the Spanish Flu broke out. Spinney reminds us that "life expectancy at birth in Europe and America did not exceed fifty, and in large parts of the globe it was much lower. Indians and Persians, for example, were lucky to celebrate their thirtieth birthdays." Science-based medicine was in its infancy even in the wealthiest countries. What today we call "alternative" therapies such as osteopathy or homeopathy were at least as likely to gain the trust of those who fell ill. In fact, physicians may have done as much harm as good, the Hippocratic Oath notwithstanding. Little wonder. "Viruses occupied only a tiny corner of the psychic universe of 1918. They hadn't been seen, and there was no test for them"—much less a vaccine or any effective treatment. To compound matters, other epidemic diseases were often raging simultaneously, including typhus and bubonic plague. In many areas, doctors were convinced the flu was the plague.Spinney explains that the label "Spanish" flu is a misnomer. She traces the wide-ranging research into the true origins of the disease, identifying the leading candidates as the United States, China, and the Western Front in the European War. Her account wanders all over the globe, zeroing in on such far-flung communities as Odessa, Russia; Kimberley, South Africa; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Zamora, Spain; and Bristol Bay, Alaska. These accounts are deeply disturbing. As is the case in so many circumstances, the poor were the hardest hit everywhere. Spinney notes that "it was bad diet, crowded living conditions and poor access to healthcare that weakened the constitution, rendering the poor, immigrants and ethnic minorities more susceptible to disease." And those suffering from existing diseases were at the greatest risk.Although Pale Rider is predominantly a work of history, and social history in particular, Spinney does delve into the scientific aspects of the pandemic. She explains the historical origins of influenza, the centuries-long efforts to understand it, and the development of vaccines beginning in the 1930s—too late, of course, to help those who fell to the Spanish Flu. However, as you're no doubt aware, the ability of scientists to produce flu vaccines on an annual basis is no guarantee that another pandemic of similar scope won't happen next year. There are simply too many varieties of influenza, and at least two strains influenza type A—H1N1, which was the basis of the Spanish Flu, and H5N1—have the potential to break out at any time in the future. And H5N1 kills some 60 per cent of the people it infects. We can only hope that an effective vaccine can be designed and manufactured in time and that today's greater understanding of public health requirements will keep the death rate in check.My only complaint about Pale Rider is that the book is structured in a way that requires some degree of repetition. Since it's not arranged in chronological order or divided into neat categories, the book can be confusing. Spinney writes in circles. I got dizzy. But the problem is minor in the context of such an informative and well-written account.
Curiosity about this under reported, global event led me here and I wasn't disappointed. Well researched, lots of examples and interesting speculation makes this a worth while read. I can't say that the theory regarding the next pandemic is comforting, but it lays the ground work for being prepared.
Meticulously researched and reported. This book opens the reader's eyes to in of the most devastating events in the past century, but one that we tend to view far more lightly than we should. It's hard to believe how swiftly and widely it spread and the extent of its devastation. The hunt for "patient zero" is a fascinating account of a major, and continuing, project of forensic medicine.
This book is full of statistics, suppositions, reports and scientific information. Not a story but more of a reference book on the subject which is mostly what I was looking for.
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