A review by devinm
The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History by John M. Barry

3.0

I would be so interested to read this before I head heard the word "coronavirus" because obviously reading it in 2021, it is so much through the lens of comparing and contrasting it to our very much still current pandemic, when even as a book is trying to do more than that. Something I think to consider if you're looking for a history of what happened in 1918-20 is that the book dedicates *a lot* of time to the development of modern medicine and specific historical figures at the time in addition to telling the story of influenza. It's important and interesting at times but also not really why I wanted to read it in the first place. Also would have been curious for more than a cursory perspective on the situation in the rest of the world, though as the author acknowledges, finding anything from that far back proved to be more difficult than he anticipated.