"With a death toll of between 50 and 100 million people and a global reach, the Spanish flu of 1918–1920 was the greatest human disaster, not only of the twentieth century, but possibly in all of recorded history. And yet, in our popular conception it exists largely as a footnote to World War I."
Perhaps this wasn't the best book to read this last week when I was sick, but I found this book to be pretty dry. The author draws on a ton of research in psychology, economics, virology, and more, so this book is packed with information. However, I felt like at times, I was slogging through the pages. It is interesting that she includes history from people who lived through this pandemic and also shows how the pandemic shaped the modern world. I think part of what threw me off in the book is the fact that the author has a non-linear way of writing. You also get a lot of her personal opinions and context correlations to possible causes and effects of possible future pandemics. Some people enjoy that; I found it distracting.
Something interesting about this pandemic is that most of the final numbers of death are under-estimated for many reasons, including communication rates, other causes for deaths, and more. However, you really do get an understanding of how far-reaching this pandemic had, and how devastating it was.
I had a mixed reaction to this book and really, wanted to find it more engaging that it was.
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