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The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History

AUTHOR Barry, John M.; Barry, John M.
PUBLISHER Penguin Books (10/01/2005)
PRODUCT TYPE Paperback (Paperback)

Description
#1 New York Times bestseller

"Barry will teach you almost everything you need to know about one of the deadliest outbreaks in human history."--Bill Gates

"Monumental... an authoritative and disturbing morality tale."--Chicago Tribune

The strongest weapon against pandemic is the truth. Read why in the definitive account of the 1918 Flu Epidemic.

Magisterial in its breadth of perspective and depth of research, The Great Influenza provides us with a precise and sobering model as we confront the epidemics looming on our own horizon. As Barry concludes, "The final lesson of 1918, a simple one yet one most difficult to execute, is that...those in authority must retain the public's trust. The way to do that is to distort nothing, to put the best face on nothing, to try to manipulate no one. Lincoln said that first, and best. A leader must make whatever horror exists concrete. Only then will people be able to break it apart."

At the height of World War I, history's most lethal influenza virus erupted in an army camp in Kansas, moved east with American troops, then exploded, killing as many as 100 million people worldwide. It killed more people in twenty-four months than AIDS killed in twenty-four years, more in a year than the Black Death killed in a century. But this was not the Middle Ages, and 1918 marked the first collision of science and epidemic disease.

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Product Format
Product Details
ISBN-13: 9780143036494
ISBN-10: 0143036491
Binding: Paperback or Softback (Trade Paperback (Us))
Content Language: English
More Product Details
Page Count: 576
Carton Quantity: 20
Product Dimensions: 5.46 x 1.19 x 8.50 inches
Weight: 1.15 pound(s)
Feature Codes: Bibliography, Index, Price on Product, Table of Contents, Ikids, Illustrated
Country of Origin: US
Subject Information
BISAC Categories
Medical | History
Medical | Infectious Diseases
Medical | Modern - 20th Century - General
Grade Level: College Freshman and up
Dewey Decimal: 614.518
Library of Congress Control Number: 2006273207
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
publisher marketing
#1 New York Times bestseller

"Barry will teach you almost everything you need to know about one of the deadliest outbreaks in human history."--Bill Gates

"Monumental... an authoritative and disturbing morality tale."--Chicago Tribune

The strongest weapon against pandemic is the truth. Read why in the definitive account of the 1918 Flu Epidemic.

Magisterial in its breadth of perspective and depth of research, The Great Influenza provides us with a precise and sobering model as we confront the epidemics looming on our own horizon. As Barry concludes, "The final lesson of 1918, a simple one yet one most difficult to execute, is that...those in authority must retain the public's trust. The way to do that is to distort nothing, to put the best face on nothing, to try to manipulate no one. Lincoln said that first, and best. A leader must make whatever horror exists concrete. Only then will people be able to break it apart."

At the height of World War I, history's most lethal influenza virus erupted in an army camp in Kansas, moved east with American troops, then exploded, killing as many as 100 million people worldwide. It killed more people in twenty-four months than AIDS killed in twenty-four years, more in a year than the Black Death killed in a century. But this was not the Middle Ages, and 1918 marked the first collision of science and epidemic disease.

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Paperback