Flu, by Gina Kolata. Chapters 1-2 (The Plague Year; A History of Disease and Death)

[rachelmanija]

If anyone's wondering why the hell I'm reading about historical pandemics, apart from curiosity, the answer is this: they are proof that this too shall pass.

This book could not be more different from Barry's. Reading them concurrently was a good choice. Kolata's focus is twofold: why the 1918 flu pandemic was so much less written about than pretty much every other pandemic before and since, and the scientific mystery of what it was and how both historical and modern researchers tried to unravel that.

So far, at least, Barry had not touched on the first subject at all and is interested in modern research only insofar as it illuminates what was done by the Great White Men during the pandemic. Conversely, Kolata only mentions the greatness of historical white men to place them in context, noting that Welch was very well-regarded at the time to explain why he was dispatched as an old man to investigate the flu outbreak and why the fact that it alarmed even him was notable.

Kolata starts with her history as a student of microbiology to note that the influenza pandemic was barely touched upon compared to other pandemics she studied, and that she got curious as to why such a huge event seemed comparatively lost to history. Then she plunges straight in to an incredibly whirlwind account of it, which conveys its impact without really explaining the how and why. (Notable to me: Tucson, AZ mandated the wearing of masks by everyone.)

Chapter two is not actually a history of all disease THANK GOD, but a brief history of the chronicling of historical plagues, to point out that there was a noticeable lack of that for the 1918 epidemic. She goes into some detail about how little the 1918 epidemic was chronicled at the time and afterward in relation to its immense impact - the doctors who were central in dealing with it barely mention it in their memoirs, a 500-page of William Welch gives it two paragraphs, etc. She surmises that the reason for this is that it was overshadowed by/subsumed into the trauma of WWI, did not leave a large number of disabled survivors, and vanished after running its course, making it both inviting and easy to not dwell on.

Kolata leaves me wanting historical detail and context, which Barry provides. Barry leaves me wanting modern context and perspective, which Kolata provides.

Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus That Caused It

Comments

[minoanmiss]

A good balance, then.
At least you want to read about the pandemics. My roommate wants to watch TV about them, and we only have one TV.

[recessional]

Damn, she does the audiobook herself and her voice is unlistenable for me. Alas.

[duskpeterson]

I have to wonder whether all those people who were forced to shut down their organizations - shops, churches, bars, etc. - were utterly silent afterwards. Not to mention the thousands of people who partook in those organizations. Because I looked over the news headlines at the online encyclopedia on the 1918 flu and, man, they sounded straight out of today's news.

And there's a lot of headlines. Could it just be that historians were falling down on their job, less interested in illness than in battles?

[sara]

It's interesting to me to see it framed as "this thing people forgot," because in my family, the 1918 flu is this big horrible thing that...well, it keeps impacting us, honestly. It's kind of our origin story.

[sovay]

Kolata leaves me wanting historical detail and context, which Barry provides. Barry leaves me wanting modern context and perspective, which Kolata provides.

I'm glad you have access to both of them.

[toastykitten]

NYT just published an article on how social distancing came to be in the modern era. You might be interested. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/22/us/politics/social-distancing-coronavirus.html

[oyceter]

WOE I am still #15 in line for 9 copies at the library. This sounds super interesting, though, especially the historiography bits!

Regarding the historical forgetting of the 1918 pandemic

[kathmandu]

I just ran across this reference: "Alfred Crosby's classic monograph on the pandemic - America's Forgotten Pandemic - has a good afterword on historical memory and the forgetting of the virus."

Have not read Crosby myself; cannot vouch personally.

[lokifan]

Kolata sounds very interesting! And thanks for summing up why she thinks the 1918 pandemic was so under-discussed, which I really noticed in 2018.