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rachelmanija Apr. 14th, 2020 06:16 pm)
rachelmanija Apr. 14th, 2020 06:16 pm)He was every bit a warrior, and he hunted death.
Barry has a very distinctive, bombastic style. The introduction in particular feels like it should be scored with Beethoven's Ninth. It tells a compelling story, of the beginning of the pandemic, and asserts, bolstered by Goethe quotes because why not, that the pandemic transformed medicine and science worldwide but especially in America.
Barry then plunges into a summary of the entire history of science and medicine in the western world, especially post-colonial America, before plunging even more enthusiastically into an account of the founding of Johns Hopkins and one of its founders, William Welch, on whom Barry seems to have a massive crush.
These hundreds of the world's leading scientists had measured him as coldly and objectively as they measured everything and found him worthy.
His legacy was not objectively measurable [I guess except to those scientists] but it was nonetheless real. It lay in his ability to stir other men's souls.
Barry then goes on and on and on about how charming Welch was. It doesn't really come across, unfortunately. His best friend apparently fall unrequitedly in love with him, they had a huge fight, and Welch never got intimate or even emotionally close to anyone ever again.
Also, he studied in Germany at a time when American medical schools were basically totally useless, unregulated diploma mills. He returned to teach at the newly founded Johns Hopkins, which was the first academically rigorous American medical school, where he charmed everyone in his path - again, this is told not shown. He sure charmed Barry, though!
Barry is clearly a member of the "Great White Men" school of historians.
Takeaways: Johns Hopkins transformed American medicine from completely backward to comparable with Europe. Germ theory at this time was beginning to take precedence over the competing "miasma" and "filth" theories. (Filth theory was so close! Disease really was spread by sewage, rats, fleas, etc. It was just caused by bacteria or viruses carried in filth, not directly by the filth itself.)
Also, Welch was the best. THE BEST.
The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History
Barry has a very distinctive, bombastic style. The introduction in particular feels like it should be scored with Beethoven's Ninth. It tells a compelling story, of the beginning of the pandemic, and asserts, bolstered by Goethe quotes because why not, that the pandemic transformed medicine and science worldwide but especially in America.
Barry then plunges into a summary of the entire history of science and medicine in the western world, especially post-colonial America, before plunging even more enthusiastically into an account of the founding of Johns Hopkins and one of its founders, William Welch, on whom Barry seems to have a massive crush.
These hundreds of the world's leading scientists had measured him as coldly and objectively as they measured everything and found him worthy.
His legacy was not objectively measurable [I guess except to those scientists] but it was nonetheless real. It lay in his ability to stir other men's souls.
Barry then goes on and on and on about how charming Welch was. It doesn't really come across, unfortunately. His best friend apparently fall unrequitedly in love with him, they had a huge fight, and Welch never got intimate or even emotionally close to anyone ever again.
Also, he studied in Germany at a time when American medical schools were basically totally useless, unregulated diploma mills. He returned to teach at the newly founded Johns Hopkins, which was the first academically rigorous American medical school, where he charmed everyone in his path - again, this is told not shown. He sure charmed Barry, though!
Barry is clearly a member of the "Great White Men" school of historians.
Takeaways: Johns Hopkins transformed American medicine from completely backward to comparable with Europe. Germ theory at this time was beginning to take precedence over the competing "miasma" and "filth" theories. (Filth theory was so close! Disease really was spread by sewage, rats, fleas, etc. It was just caused by bacteria or viruses carried in filth, not directly by the filth itself.)
Also, Welch was the best. THE BEST.
The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History
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I should really look up the book on the 1918 pandemic they had to read at my son's high school for a contrast. It's in the kidlet's room somewhere.
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Apparently I also needed something to be easier on my sense of indignation too. ;)
ETA: I don't hate this book, but the "Dudes! So wonderful! Enlightened! So brilliant!" It's making me laugh a lot.
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"Avoid a panic, but take this thing seriously."