Very, Very, Very Dreadful, Albert Marrin
Very, Very, Very Dreadful, Albert Marrin
List: $18.00 | Sale: $12.60
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Very, Very, Very Dreadful
The Influenza Pandemic of 1918

Author: Albert Marrin

Narrator: Jim Frangione

Unabridged: 5 hr 45 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/09/2018


Synopsis

From National Book Award finalist Albert Marrin comes a fascinating look at the history and science of the deadly 1918 flu pandemic--and its chilling and timely resemblance to the worldwide coronavirus outbreak.

In spring of 1918, World War I was underway, and troops at Fort Riley, Kansas, found themselves felled by influenza. By the summer of 1918, the second wave struck as a highly contagious and lethal epidemic and within weeks exploded into a pandemic, an illness that travels rapidly from one continent to another. It would impact the course of the war, and kill many millions more soldiers than warfare itself.

Of all diseases, the 1918 flu was by far the worst that has ever afflicted humankind; not even the Black Death of the Middle Ages comes close in terms of the number of lives it took. No war, no natural disaster, no famine has claimed so many. In the space of eighteen months in 1918-1919, about 500 million people--one-third of the global population at the time--came down with influenza. The exact total of lives lost will never be known, but the best estimate is between 50 and 100 million.

In this powerful book, filled with black and white photographs, nonfiction master Albert Marrin examines the history, science, and impact of this great scourge--and the possibility for another worldwide pandemic today.

A Chicago Public Library Best Book of the Year!

About The Author

Albert Marrin is the author of numerous nonfiction books for young readers, including the National Book Award finalist Flesh and Blood So Cheap: The Triangle Fire and Its Legacy; Uprooted: The Japanese-American Experience During WWII; A Volcano Beneath the Snow: John Brown's War Against Slavery; Black Gold: The Story of Oil in Our Lives,and Thomas Paine: Crusader for Liberty, and FDR and the American Crisis.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Kris

Generally fine, but not everything I wanted it to be. I wanted more history and less... science? More about the impact upon culture and war and the people of the time. Less about what scientists do with viruses in labs now, and less about other diseases. Less random trivia. Side Rant: The author clear......more

Goodreads review by Victor

Apart from the usual problem of books about pandemics (authors focus on just one aspect, geographically, making it anything but pandemic — the US in this case), this is a very good intro into the subject, with lots of useful and vivid pictures. Since it's quite modern, it's very up-to-date; some of......more

Goodreads review by Josiah

Pandemics that threaten to exterminate mankind are a popular plot device for dystopian fiction, but how many of us know that such an extermination almost happened in the year 1918? While millions of soldiers were being blown to pieces in World War I, a new mutation of the influenza virus began an un......more

Goodreads review by Conor

It's weird that we don't talk more about the flu. Specifically, it's weird that the Pandemic of 1918 isn't up there with the Holocaust and WWII in terms of notable massacres of the 20th century. Sure, we talk about it some--I think a few of my grandfather's sisters died in it, and that's to be expec......more


Quotes

"This is nonfiction at its best." —Booklist, starred review