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asnyder331's review
informative
reflective
slow-paced
2.0
I really struggled to get through this one. It could've been edited into multiple books
pictusfish's review
2.0
He said on several occasions that deoxygenated blood is blue or blueish, which anybody who has ever had blood drawn knows from personal experience is false. It makes me wonder what other easily-verifiable facts he also gets wrong.
With all that said, i do recommend the book, if for no other reason than for its wonderful message that the United States, from the highest government official to the everyday citizen, simply does not handle pandemic well, and it has nothing to do with "this generation". The click-bait news headlines from 1918 might have been written in 2020 if you change "germany" to "china".
With all that said, i do recommend the book, if for no other reason than for its wonderful message that the United States, from the highest government official to the everyday citizen, simply does not handle pandemic well, and it has nothing to do with "this generation". The click-bait news headlines from 1918 might have been written in 2020 if you change "germany" to "china".
waynediane's review
5.0
A most fascinating book. Predicted in untold fashion about the next Pandemic although written almost 2 decades prior. More importantly the history of the medical profession, did I say profession(al) and science in America. Also, the politics of 1918 supposedly worse the the McCarthy era. Lynchings if you said anything about the pandemic- it was unpatriotic. Long, but so full of details of that era. President Wilson not a nice guy.
1cornsread's review
Decries my religion and reads very slowly. Too high of a lexile for my level and contains touches of prejudice against certain races.
lunacorn's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
2.5
Very textbook like, lots of good information though
poppymonster's review
4.0
Although this book wasn’t perfect, it was wonderfully done. I didn’t anticipate the driving force behind the story to be a call to action to prepare for another influenza pandemic. It was fascinating to look at this as a mirror of the COVID 19 pandemic: lies of multiple governments, racism and classism impacting how it is portrayed and how quickly help arrives for certain groups, impact of global economy and interdependence, lack of preparedness for huge influx of hospital patients, and those in power refusing to take scientists seriously until things get bad.
My biggest hang ups were: the author’s use of slurs to describe Inuit people, repetitive phrases like “it’s only influenza”, and very little page time being given to minority groups in general.
My biggest hang ups were: the author’s use of slurs to describe Inuit people, repetitive phrases like “it’s only influenza”, and very little page time being given to minority groups in general.
libcolleen's review
4.0
The author has a very fun "story-telling" style that makes this fun and easy to keep reading. Very fascinating and informative because it is a history of the deadly outbreak, but also a history of the development aand spread of the scientific method itself.