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Pale Rider

The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World

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Brought to you by Penguin.

With a death toll of between 50 and 100 million people and a global reach, the Spanish flu of 1918–1920 was the greatest human disaster, not only of the twentieth century, but possibly in all of recorded history. And yet, in our popular conception it exists largely as a footnote to World War I.

In Pale Rider, Laura Spinney recounts the story of an overlooked pandemic, tracing it from Alaska to Brazil, from Persia to Spain, and from South Africa to Odessa. She shows how the pandemic was shaped by the interaction of a virus and the humans it encountered; and how this devastating natural experiment put both the ingenuity and the vulnerability of humans to the test.

Laura Spinney demonstrates that the Spanish flu was as significant – if not more so – as two world wars in shaping the modern world; in disrupting, and often permanently altering, global politics, race relations, family structures, and thinking across medicine, religion and the arts.

'Both a saga of tragedies and a detective story... Pale Rider is not just an excavation but a reimagining of the past' Guardian

(C) Laura Spinney 2017 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

 Moderne Monde Médecine et secteur de la santé Troubles et maladies XXe siècle Afrique Médecine Amérique Latine Guerre Impérialisme Moyen Âge

Ce que les critiques en disent

With superb investigative skill and a delightfully light-hearted writing style, Spinney extends her analysis far beyond the relatively short duration of the plague... I’ve seldom had so much fun reading about people dying.
Weaves together global history and medical science to great effect ... Riveting.
Both a saga of tragedies and a detective story... Pale Rider is not just an excavation but a reimagining of the past.
Vividly recreated, grimly fascinating… Coolly, crisply and with a consistently sharp eye for the telling anecdote, Spinney ... demonstrates how the Spanish flu cast a long shadow over the 20th century.
Magisterial.
Impressive... packed with fascinating, quirky detail... As the centenary of this monumental event approaches, other volumes on the pandemic will undoubtedly appear. Pale Rider sets the bar very high.
Influenza, like all viruses, is a parasite. Laura Spinney traces its long shadow over human history… In Europe and North America the first world war killed more than Spanish flu; everywhere else the reverse is true. Yet most narratives focus on the West… Ms Spinney’s book goes some way to redress the balance.
Laura Spinney provides a vivid account of the medical mysteries surrounding this exceptionally lethal disease and its long-term consequences. The main fascination of her wonderfully absorbing book lies in its international comparisons, reinforced by harrowing narratives of personal experiences… Pale Rider offers an important if unsettling reminder that stories about epidemics cannot be safely relegated to the past. (Patricia Fara)
Engaging, delivering the necessary science in the tone of a trendy lecturer who is chatty and informal but always authoritative… The post-war world created treaties, organisations and protest groups to prevent global conflict recurring, yet the century’s biggest killer may have been something else entirely. This fascinating, frightening book will begin to redress that dangerous historical imbalance. (Julie McDowall)
Spinney, an admired science journalist, conjures the drama of the Spanish flu… Pale Rider is not just an excavation but a reimagining of the past… The renowned virologist John Oxford concurs: “H1N1 has a proven capacity to kill,” he says, “and we don’t need to be sitting here taking it like they did in 1918.” Spinney has ably lent her pen to the cause. (Colin Grant)
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Les plus pertinents
Rather a patchy none linear account that jumps around a lot. I prefer The Great Influenza by John Barry although the science in Pale Rider is more up to date. As a result of the constant switching of chapter themes there is some repetition of information, for example, parts of the pandemic's story relating to Samoa. The origin story (patient zero) seems to be gone over in several places. In some places the author would say I'll return to this later rather than giving a full account of a specific event. Some detail was over elaborate where anecdotes would go on and on without an obvious point. The postulated effects of the pandemic on historical events were interesting but much of this is speculation.
There are some very interesting stories that are not covered. For example the exhumation of Sir Mark Sykes, co-author of the Sykes-Picot agreement, in 2007 to try and get viral DNA as he was buried in a lead lined casket. The Paris Peace conference where Sykes attended and died of H1N1 in his hotel room is however mentioned. T E Lawrence left the conference to go to his dying father as the author states.
I found the narrator's voice rather boring.

Factual but none linear

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Good book, without being great. As mentioned by other reviewers, this book does not go in chronological order but jumps around in time depending on what each chapter is about. this can be a bit confusing, but still overall a decent listen.

decent book

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