Karen H. (SashaFletch) reviewed on 8/12/2011 + 121 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 2

This is a VERY thorough book about the Influenza Pandemic that killed millions of people world wide between 1917 and around 1920. The author gives a nice overview of the progression of medical science from around the 1500's up until the pandemic hits. I found that very interesting. However, once the author began writing about the actual pandemic, I found that he used many more words to say what could have been said in fewer. I think this 465 page book could have been just as effective, and a little less boring if he had cut off about 65 of those pages. He repeats himself a lot and really goes on and on about some subjects in order to impress upon the reader how bad the conditions really were. I can respect that, however, by the time I was 2/3 of the way through the book, I was ancy for it to end. That's too bad because it is apparent the author did a lot of excellent research and really knew his subject in order to prepare and write this book. But overall, it is a very informative and interesting case history about what happened when the pandemic hit right in the middle of WW I.

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