Beth Bachman
“The Great Influenza”
John M. Barry’s “The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History” is the story of the 1918 influenza epidemic – the first confrontation of modern science and epidemic disease. For Barry, the 1918 influenza epidemic is not just a story of misery and death or of society fighting a war against nature. The most important part of the story, for Barry, is that of science, and of discovery, and of how the way one thinks can change, and of how the determined actions of a few men changed the medical community and scientific thought in America. This heavily directs the emphasis of Barry’s book. The focus seems to be more on his meticulous research of the giants of the scientific community at the time and how they changed the nature of medicine through the course of the influenza epidemic. The book is full of exhaustive research – almost to the point of distraction. While John M. Barry’s “The Great Influenza” is very thorough, the lack of focus on the actual influenza epidemic is disconcerting and casts the rest of the book in an unimpressive light.
“The Great Influenza” covers an impressive amount of information about the 1918 influenza epidemic. The book includes speculation on where the epidemic begins, its spread to military camps and the subsequent explosion over the world, the first wave that killed few and the second that was extremely deadly, the phenomenon of the ‘cytokine storm’ that decimated young, apparently healthy people, the cover up of the disease in the press, and finally how the epidemic was over just as quickly as it had begun. In addition though, the book describes medical advancement during the epidemic, as well as decades before and after. Barry highlights many scientists of the day and their research, the race to discover the actual cause of influenza and an effective vaccine, and how even after years of painstaking research significant discoveries can still elude even the best scientists.
There is no doubt that “The Great Influenza” is extremely well researched. Barry states in the acknowledgements that he expected to write the book in two and a half years, but he ended up researching and writing for seven years. Barry’s attention to detail is admirable, but unnecessary to the degree that he presents it. Barry is also very good at explaining to his audience the context of the time – scientific and medical as well as societal and political. The understanding of this context is crucial to understanding why the 1918 influenza epidemic was so deadly.
The strengths of “The Great Influenza” are not enough to redeem the many weaknesses in the book though. As mentioned previously, the book is extremely well researched. However, most of Barry’s research seems to be superfluous – the birthday parties, job offers, and family or marital problems of the scientists portrayed are not necessary in a book that is supposedly about the influenza. All this detail leads to a general lack of focus. Barry is trying to cover too many topics – it’s almost like he is trying to fit a textbook’s amount of information into a novel length book. There is just too much research in “The Great Influenza” to lead to a cohesive story. The lack of organization within some parts of the book compounds the confusion from all the excess information. With all of the scientists Barry covers throughout the course of the book, it is hard to keep track of them all, especially because Barry seemingly jumps from one scientist or discovery to another to another with no transitions or even a coherent train of thought. Barry’s own opinions and bias occasionally come through, especially when discussing President Wilson. However, the most glaring flaw is the shortage of attention on the actual influenza epidemic. When compared to the excessive detail of the rest of the book, Barry seems to barely skim the surface of the epidemic. To see Barry not treat the epidemic with the same obvious devotion and attention he gives to his research on the medical community and scientific progress is disappointing.
While it is impossible to include every bit of information about influenza in a 500 page book, more information about the effects of the epidemic on the general population, the political response and subsequent newspaper cover up, or what normal citizens were doing in response to this deadly epidemic could have been included. I feel that the book would have been more interesting if Barry had focused on one town or area of the country and gone into detail about what the epidemic was like there – how and when the influenza arrived, the people it was affecting, the city’s response, and so on. This look at one specific area could have served as a microcosm to the epidemic in the United States and the rest of the world. The book was interesting, but I was disappointed by both the information it did present and what it did not. The history of the medical community was enlightening up to a point, but the sheer volume of it that Barry included made it very difficult for me to get through “The Great Influenza.” When this is compounded with only a small amount of real, concentrated focus on the epidemic, it is easy to become frustrated when reading. While full of quality research, the lack of information on the actual influenza epidemic makes it seem like “The Great Influenza” is not the ‘Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History’ but rather a story of great scientists who just happened to be around when the 1918 influenza epidemic was raging.
