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Alfred W. Crosby
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America's Forgotten Pandemic: The Influenza of 1918 English Language Edition

by Alfred W. Crosby (Author)
3.9 out of 5 stars 14 ratings
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Between August 1918 and March 1919 the Spanish influenza spread worldwide claiming over 25 million lives, more people than perished in the fighting of the First World War. It proved fatal to at least a half-million Americans. Yet, the Spanish flu pandemic is largely forgotten today. In this vivid narrative, Alfred W. Crosby recounts the course of the pandemic during the panic-striken months of 1918 and 1919, measures its impact on American society, and probes the curious loss of national memory of this cataclysmic event.
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  1. ISBN-10
    0521386950
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0521386951
  3. Edition
    English Language
  4. Publisher
    Cambridge University Press
  5. Publication date
    January 26, 1990
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    6.02 x 0.71 x 9.06 inches
  8. Print length
    351 pages
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America's Forgotten Pandemic: The Influenza of 1918
America's Forgotten Pandemic: The Influenza of 1918
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Editorial Reviews

Book Description

Originally published in 1976, this vivid narrative of the devastating but largely forgotten Spanish influenza epidemic of 1918-1919 is updated with a new preface.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Cambridge University Press
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ January 26, 1990
  • Edition ‏ : ‎ English Language
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 351 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0521386950
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0521386951
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.08 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.02 x 0.71 x 9.06 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.9 out of 5 stars 14 ratings

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Alfred W. Crosby

Alfred W. Crosby

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3.9 out of 5 stars
14 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book very informative, particularly appreciating its extensive data and figures. They praise its historical accuracy, providing an excellent perspective on the 1918 Influenza Pandemic.

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Information contentHistorical accuracy
5 customers mention "Information content"5 positive0 negative

Customers find the book informative and interesting, with extensive facts and mountains of data and figures.

"Excellence resource with mountains of data and figures on the 1918 Pandemic. Exclactoy what I needed in a reference for my project." Read more

"This was an interesting book, I hadn't heard much about the flu pandemic...." Read more

"A nicely presented history of the epidemic. Very informative and interesting." Read more

"...Extensive facts and figures about the 1918 Influenza Pandemic which [in a period of ten months] likely claimed the lives of a 100 million people..." Read more

4 customers mention "Historical accuracy"4 positive0 negative

Customers praise the book's historical perspective on the 1918 Influenza Pandemic and its figures, with one customer noting it provides a new method to examine the era.

"Excellence resource with mountains of data and figures on the 1918 Pandemic. Exclactoy what I needed in a reference for my project." Read more

"...Overall it provides a new method to examine the era." Read more

"A nicely presented history of the epidemic. Very informative and interesting." Read more

"...Extensive facts and figures about the 1918 Influenza Pandemic which [in a period of ten months] likely claimed the lives of a 100 million people..." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Steve M.
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excellence resource with mountains of data and figures on the ...
    Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2014
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    Excellence resource with mountains of data and figures on the 1918 Pandemic. Exclactoy what I needed in a reference for my project.
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  • Sarah
    4.0 out of 5 stars at times I felt like the impact of the flu was a little exaggerated
    Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    This was an interesting book, I hadn't heard much about the flu pandemic. He illustrated how devastating the illness was; however, at times I felt like the impact of the flu was a little exaggerated. Overall it provides a new method to examine the era.
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  • brenda Ann Sudol
    3.0 out of 5 stars There are much better, more informative books on the market.
    Reviewed in the United States on November 8, 2021
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    Im not so sure the information provided in this book has been thoroughly researched.
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  • Kristen
    4.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting
    Reviewed in the United States on July 13, 2018
    Format: Mass Market PaperbackVerified Purchase
    A nicely presented history of the epidemic. Very informative and interesting.
    4 people found this helpful
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  • James Burns
    5.0 out of 5 stars Best book on the Influenza Pandemic available
    Reviewed in the United States on November 7, 2001
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    Excellent historical perspective on the 1918 Influenza Pandemic.
    Extensive facts and figures about the 1918 Influenza Pandemic which [in a period of ten months] likely claimed the lives of a 100 million people worldwide.
    5 people found this helpful
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  • James Carragher
    3.0 out of 5 stars Caught Between a History of the Era and of the Flu
    Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2001
    Format: Paperback
    Why did the Spanish flu kill 25 million people worldwide? Why did it kill those in the prime of life more efficiently than the usual flu victims, the very young or the very old? Where did it go after its nine month run through the world in 1918-1919? Can it strike again? Why has it been largely forgotten by historians? Engaging questions all, and Alfred Crosby asks them and to a greater or lesser extent seeks to answer them. Still, this book is less than it could be, written for too much of its length as if he were keeping his narrative powers deliberately in check. For those that doubt he is capable of powerful writing, the last chapter stands as rebuttal, with its tribute to Katherine Anne Porter -- to whom the book is dedicated -- and an adult's recollection of how the flu brought home at age seven the early realization that "life was not a perpetual present, and that even tomorrow would be part of the past, and that for all my days and years to come I too must one day die." I'd like to have seen more of those personal close-ups of the impact of the flu instead of the grim numbers in Philadelphia, then the grim numbers in San Francisco, then the grim numbers in Alaska. It is as if Crosby wanted to write a history of the era as it was lived with the flu and wound up writing a journal of morbidity and mortality, and the virus sleuthing that followed. He aimed for a vision and achieved a laboratory slide -- no mean accomplishment, but not, I think, what we or he were finally after.
    31 people found this helpful
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  • Severin Olson
    5.0 out of 5 stars WHY FORGOTTEN?
    Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2006
    Format: Paperback
    Crosby's classic account of this pandemic begins in the spring of 1918 with the virus just getting started in American military training camps. He then discusses how it devastated Philadelphia and San Francisco, contrasting the two cities handling of the crisis. The rest of the book looks at how the flu affected the US army in France and how it impacted the Paris peace conference. Toward the end we get a fascinating but grisly description of how Alaskan native towns were destroyed by the disease.

    Crosby focuses on the US here, and does not take a global perspective, as most books have. We learn nothing, for instance, about how over twelve million perished in India. But then Crosby is an American historian, and we gain something by limiting our focus.

    Why is this disaster forgotten? Of course the war had much to do with it; people have trouble absorbing two calamities at the same time. But I also believe the public remained calm for a simple reason: the sickness was known to be flu. An unusual and deadly flu it was to be sure, but it is hard for many to be truly afraid of a disease that strikes every year and lasts a season. Most probably thought they would make it through until spring. For a half million in the states, this turned out to be a delusion.
    6 people found this helpful
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  • Greg Gibbs (ggibbs@princeton.edu)
    4.0 out of 5 stars An Invisible Horror More Destructive Than a World War
    Reviewed in the United States on April 27, 1998
    Format: Paperback
    Sit down, and allow me to scare you for a moment. Imagine that the world is gripped in the throes of the lengthy stalemate of a senseless war that has depleted Europe of most of its young men and resources, and those that remain are destitute, dispirited, starving, and suffering from the lost of loved ones. In the midst of this war, a formerly rather innocuous disease suddenly mutates into a new killer strain which infects all corners of the globe, from Alaska to Africa, within a matter of weeks. This new disease is not only remarkably contagious, but it is so lethal and destroys so many lives in such a short time-frame that even the ghastly global war pales in comparison. Even the greatest medical minds of the time have little idea (or worse, wrong ideas) as to how to prevent or treat the disease and what may be causing it. The disease makes little discrimination with regard to class, race, nationality, or gender, killing all with an unforgiving ferocity. Perhaps the strangest characteristic of this new, invisible killer, is that it seems to especially target people in the prime of their lives, wiping them out at a rate far disproportionate to that seen in the "traditional" victims of disease, people with inexperienced or compromised immune systems, such as the very young and the very old.
    The scariest aspect of this tale is that it is not fiction. It has already happened, and scientists not only foresee the repeat of such an apocalyptic scourge as possible, but they express surprise that it hasn't already repeated its destruction... yet. This nightmarish ordeal I allude to is the worldwide "Spanish" (which, curiously, probably first appeared in the US) Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919 at the conclusion of WWI, and is covered in a most comprehensive fashion in Alfred Crosby's "America's Forgotten Pandemic: The Influenza of 1918".
    Crosby goes into considerable detail (perhaps too much at times) about the origins, course, and record of devastation left by the pandemic ("pandemic" referring to global epidemic). He discusses the effects of the flu upon America's effort to send troops to the Western Front (bases where troops were trained and ships which carried troops across the Atlantic turned out to be "hothouses" for foment and spread of the disease) and the effects upon troops and their actions once at the front. As Crosby convincingly posits, the pandemic may have "helped" to end the fighting and, interestingly, its effects upon the health of political leaders such as Woodrow Wilson and Clemenceau may have had a drastically damaging impact on settlements at the end of "the war to end all wars". Crosby also effectively explains how the nature of the influenza -- an invisible and intransigent virus sweeping in without warning, rapidly and indiscriminately killing its defenseless victims, and then, almost as rapidly, disappearing into quiescence -- may have led to making it a horror of surprisingly little lasting impact upon the consciousness and fears of the world, especially when juxtaposed against the world war dominating the headlines. Hence, "America's forgotten pandemic".
    Crosby writes in an engaging, readable manner and though he has clearly done his homework and really knows his stuff, he thankfully avoids the common pitfall of scientific books of this type: beating the reader over the head with one's erudition and coming across as a condescending pedant presenting a book laden with technical indecipherables and obscurations. So, why a 7 and not a 10? Well, the people who would gain the most from the work -- budding biology research scientists and health practitioners -- will (and rightfully should) ignore whatever value I assign to the tome and will likely find the book quite inspirational to their own efforts. Nevertheless, the book is more of a scientific document and not a narrative per se, and therefore tends to lend itself more to pages of statistical detail than a more "human" reflection of the pandemic. Other works, most notably Katharine Anne Porter's "Pale Horse, Pale Rider", may give the general reader a better individual perspective of the pandemic and its effects upon the thoughts, emotions, and lives of Americans. That said, Crosby's work is well worth reading as THE complete account of one of the most deadly phenomena that has plagued mankind (tasteless pun, to my regret, intended).
    156 people found this helpful
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