A review by talonsontypewriters
Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World by Laura Spinney

informative reflective medium-paced

3.0

An interesting and thorough examination of the 1918-20 Spanish flu pandemic and the factors surrounding its emergence, spread, and aftermath, with a particularly interesting focus on ordinary lives affected as well as non-white/Christian countries and communities -- in late 2021, some passages are outright eerie (or morbidly amusing). The technical writing and style sometimes bothered me, though, as did the author's occasional tone and word choice. The last section also felt a good deal weaker than those preceding it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Xenophobia, Medical content

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Chronic illness, Suicide, Antisemitism, Grief, Colonisation, War

Minor: Ableism, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Rape, Forced institutionalization, Islamophobia, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy

Graphic descriptions, naturally, of illnesses, deaths by illness, and epidemics/pandemics. Descriptions of unsanitary conditions and practices. Occasional discussion (negatively framed) of eugenics and forced sterilization. Dated language in some quotations and descriptions, as well as occasional kind of weird framing of Indigenous, Asian, and Black communities, traditions, and responses to racism and (attempts at) colonization.