Books of 2006, Part 3: The Great Influenza

The Great Influenza

by

John M. Barry

While not as scary as The Hot Zone, the book traces the history of the 1918 influenza outbreak that killed as many as 100 million people across the world.

The book could've benefitted from a timeline, but it was interesting. And like The Devil in the White City, I was more interested in the political climate, where the goverment in its over zealous attempt to keep things positive with WW1 going on, probably aided the virus spread by not informing the nation of its severity and not limiting troop movement until it was way too late.