More Deadly Than War: The Hidden History of the Spanish Flu and the First World War by Kenneth C. Davis (2018), 291 pages.
During our current pandemic, I’ve heard things here and there about the last time the world saw a pandemic this devastating and widespread – in 1918 when the world was hit by a deadly and highly contagious strain of the flu that ended up with the name “Spanish flu.” My mom has also told me that my great-great-grandfather died of the Spanish flu when he was my age. I decided to read more about this public health crisis that happened a century ago, and as I sometimes do, I turned to a nonfiction book written for children and young adults. I often find that books for young people do a better job of explaining history and science because they don’t assume that the reader already knows a lot.
This book covers the history of both the “Spanish” flu and World War I. These two world events happened at the same time, but they were also inextricably linked. The first cases of this flu showed up in Kansas in the spring of 1918 and much of the spread in the United States was concentrated in and around training camps for the military. The flu was also spread overseas by the movement of troops – first by American troops being shipped to Europe, and then all over the world as the fighting took place on several continents. The flu, however, actually took a much greater toll in human lives than all of the years of fighting that comprised the war.
It was amazing and sobering to read the story of the Spanish flu pandemic while living through the COVID-19 pandemic. In some ways, this pandemic from 100 years ago seems familiar. There is the controversy over wearing masks and canceling big events. There are the politicians and scientists disagreeing over what to do. And there is the human toll of lives lost or forever changed. However, it is heartening to read how much better equipped we are for this pandemic, in terms of our knowledge of disease and the treatments available to the sick.
If you’re interested in reading more about the Spanish flu and other public health crises, our library also has:
Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World by Laura Spinney (2017), 332 pages. – Find this more detailed book in adult Nonfiction.
Fever year: The Killer Flu of 1918: A Tragedy in Three Acts by Don Brown (2019), 96 pages. – This one is a Teen Graphic Novel.
Terrible Typhoid Mary: The Most Harmless and Yet Most Dangerous Woman in America: A True Story of the Deadliest Cook in America by Susan Campbell Bartoletti (2015), 229 pages. – This Children’s Nonfiction book is about the typhoid epidemic of 1906-1907.
Fatal Fever: Tracking Down Typhoid Mary by Gail Jarrow (2015), 175 pages. (Also available as an ebook on Overdrive/Libby.) – This story of Typhoid Mary and the 1906-1907 typhoid epidemic is in Teen Nonfiction.
Bubonic Panic: When Plague Invaded America by Gail Jarrow (2016), 197 pages. (Also available as an ebook on Overdrive/Libby.) – This Teen Nonfiction book tells the story of how the medieval plague came to San Francisco in 1900.
Happy reading!
-Teresa Moulton, Public Service Leader
