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July Book Club Meeting

America's Forgotten Pandemic: The Influenza of 1918 by Alfred W. Crosby, Monday, July 20, 7-8 pm

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. 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 scourge 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 especially to 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 was 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. Preview book online (read an excerpt)