A fascinating look into the Spanish Flu pandemic from 1918 and how it changed the world, this is a book of many parts. The most interesting part is the factual detailed account of the Spanish Flu pandemic, its place in history, the implications from it and the lasting impact it had on the world. It's also a somewhat depressing read as you realise how little certain people have learnt from it, as various governments around the world fumble the Covid-19 pandemic and fail to adequately protect their citizens.
The factual parts of the book were great. Unfortunately, the remainder of the book is a weird section packed with conjecture and the author's vaguely-researched ideas about potential future outbreaks, tracking methodologies etc. Maybe reading this through the lens of the current pandemic made it more trite, but that was definitely my personal experience.
As a historical look back, there are some parts that resonate uncannily when compared to our current situation, and that for me was the real value of this book - an opportunity to try and learn from history.

This was quite a read...a pandemic; people not following social distancing; disagreements about schools and face masks, but this isn’t 2020, this is 1918 and the outbreak of the Spanish flu.

The best part of the book is reading how different the response was depending on the different factors of where a person lived and whether they were socially disadvantaged, it was an interesting read.

The outbreak of the Spanish flu is not something which people know much about, but it can give us a view of what could happen now if we did not have access to the medical advancements that we have. It can also serve as a warning of how things can go wrong when there isn’t adequate political leadership or information.

A timely reminder of how vulnerable our society is. The H1N1 'Spanish' flu virus of 1918-19 caused more death than the Great War yet it has been largely forgotten largely because the human race prefers to ignore how fragile it can be. Probably the most shocking revelations in the book concern the extent to which the pandemic's effects were effective erased from public memory. This well researched book lays out the facts: the devastating statistics, the unwise decisions, the ignorance and stupidity of the public and the sweeping changes to public health that eventually emerged. What might have been an entertaining and intriguing study when it was first published in 2017 has now become essential reading for a world trying to come to terms with Covid-19.

Absolutely loved this book!!! Would wholeheartedly recommend to all of my friends, and I cannot wait to read more from this author.

A global phenomenon is the world-world pandemic that has loosely become known as Spanish Flu 1918.
That is was written prior to the COVID-19 crisis which the WHO termed a modern day pandemic and which we are still living through. Makes this a more interesting and telling account.
This is a well researched and detailed study; well indexed and with noted references throughout.
I found the book well paced and covered an enormous range of issues and covered many countries and how they saw it and how it was to many a slight infection of flu. Others especially of a certain age group, being pregnant or of poorer living standards, diet, housing and access to medicine fared much worse and modern estimates calculate a total mortality across the nations of between 50 - 100 million.
It tackles some of the issues I had.
My general ignorance of the subject compared to my knowledge of the Great War 1914-1918. It’s potential origins are discussed and why some were more susceptible than others and how social distancing was introduced in places. Why others responded differently. I liked the explanation of the growing medical knowledge and why this didn’t always bring relief or a concerted approach.
Furthermore I found fascinating the potential effects this illness had on many countries with regards to political advancement or stalled reform as influential people succumbed to the epidemic.
The whole aspect of the after effects of the illness, lost generations beyond the slaughter in War. The like of artistic record in any format is tackled as is that although lessons were taken on broad, an interesting line of thought is given to the need for time and more detailed knowledge in all the diverse settings to fully understand the impact this event had in terms of total deaths, social change and its effect on history.
Some have even argued that the timing of the epidemic perhaps hindered the peace settlement and even contributed to the 2nd World War.

I really appreciated this many faceted approach and global perspective. It has added greatly to my understanding and joined up a few dots along the way.

I found the evolution of medical reasoning alongside the development of disease as human beings first settled into communities and learned animal husbandry quite revealing. It shows why we were expecting the next expansive flu virus to hit us. Yet despite the preparedness, understanding of animal to human transmission.

It leaves me disappointed in the lack of current medical and scientific advancement to leave the door open to a coronavirus and fail to share information across the globe. Quarantine in the modern world is way beyond keeping a ship from disembarking in port and for all our intelligence we perhaps lack a sense of humanity and are devoid of common sense.

A comprehensive survey and social history of the Spanish Flu (with a solid chapter apologia for the name), and a stab at reconciling the science (flaky), the history (better but biased) and the global impact in one readable book. Spinney is also acute aware of where she stands in the scholarship of the flu - that this is a burgeoning field of study all of a sudden and plenty of discoveries - particularly in China and India - are in the process of being pieced together. And she is well aware that the cliches of the Spanish Flu - as punctuation to World War I, as the most significant global pandemic of the modern age, all need to be examined even if true. Of course she had no idea that Covid-19 was coming, and I wouldn't be surprised if a hastily written foreword was not cobbled together to give it context, not least on some of the assumptions made in the final chapters about global public health responses to future pandemics now look out of date. But also the book reminds us that this is a marathon not a sprint, and that you can manage disease, but never think you have beaten it.

Reading Pale Rider in lockdown you cannot help but make comparisons, and it is interesting that when the Spanish Flu took hold (whichever not Spain place it came from), people didn't even know about viruses. There was a solid sense that flu was a bacterial infection due to a common bacterium that was found in a majority of flu sufferers. Transmission vectors were also unknown and the scientific method pretty much fell apart when you looked at people. only latter post facto mortality data with more modern statistical analysis really breaks down where was most and least affected - and some of this is due to exposure to viruses in the 1800's which we don't know about. It is clear also from here why much pandemic planning has been all around flu - to the detriment of how instant responses to Covid panned out. But the long game is possibly clearer here - and early lockdown, followed by social distancing will work, but you have to plan and expect later waves.

As a modern history, Spinney is very keen on getting a global perspective, rightly identifying that the Spanish Flu narrative has often been a Western one where the disease actually had a much larger death toll in India and China. She is also surprisingly even handed even when she gets to the idiots, who we recognise now from the news but in 1918 were mainly bishops who insisted that communion with the same person feeding the blood, flesh and one assumes virus of Christ. But this does that thing good histories do, pepper the text with interesting trivia whilst telling a number of concurrent narratives which add up to a slippery whole. And then, cheerily suggest we are blindfold walking into another disaster.... Highly recommended

[Read as a NetGalley ARC]

"It's not so easy to count the dead. They don't wear uniforms, display exit wounds, or fall down in a circumscribed area. They die in large numbers in a short space of time, over a vast expanse of space, and many of them disappear into mass graves."

In these times, it's impossible to read a book about a global pandemic and not think about COVID-19. Against that backdrop, this is a revelatory book - but even outside of the pandemic setting, this is well-researched and makes some interesting, albeit at times controversial, statements. I didn't agree with everything said, but Spinney would definitely be an interesting person to have a debate with.

'Pale Rider' is split into three parts - before the so-called Spanish influenza, during its three waves, and the aftermath. The first is a straightforward military history of the First World War, but Spinney is careful to try and give a more global impression around the state of the world in the 1910s, rather than just focusing on Europe (with the caveat that she is European). Little of this was new to me, but it was well-researched and accessibly written, painting a solid backdrop for the information to come.

The second part is this books highlight, and easily a five-star section. Spinney follows the influenza around the world - from the war camps of Europe to the remotest parts of Alaska, from cities in the US to rural China, from highly-populated India to tiny Samoa (then Western Samoa). The total death toll from the pandemic is disputed - there was no diagnostic test for influenza, and viruses would not be proven to exist for another thirty years - but anecdotal tales of the characteristic symptoms and devastation are everywhere. Spinney investigates the different potential origins of the influenza - almost certainly not Spain - and how it might have spread. She looks at the measures different countries used to try and fight it, and the impact these had. She looks at the impact on individuals, communities, places, organisations, and the world as a whole. It's a thoroughly researched study of the pandemic that doesn't shy away from the impact of everything around it - war, poverty, class, race, gender, and everything in between.

This book was written in 2017, about a pandemic in 1918, but some of the chapters could be about COVID in 2020. There is an entire chapter on naming - how should viruses be named to avoid unnecessary stigmatisation? The Spanish Influenza is a misnomer - scientists are currently split on where it originated, but France, the US, and China are all considered far more likely than Spain. We saw this year how, before COVID-19 was given its name, some referred to it as the 'Wuhan virus', leading to huge stigmatisation, and in some cases abuse, against those of South-East Asian descent. Similarly, there is a chapter on disease containment which sounds eerily like the measures used to contain COVID-19. Against the Spanish Influenza, countries introduced social distancing. Some closed schools. Public information campaigns advised personal hygiene, coughing into handkerchiefs, avoiding crowds, and staying home when sick. Some health officials in Japan advised wearing cloth masks; others argued about their effectiveness. I found it fascinating how little our response to a devastating virus - without a reliable vaccine or cure - has changed in 100 years.

Spinney goes beyond the science of a pandemic and looks at more of the social and individual effects. Her use of stories about specific individuals makes the stories harder hitting and far more accessible and interesting. It also gives intriguing looks at the cultural backdrop of places like 1918 New York, Rio de Janeiro, and Shansi. New York was a place of stark inequality, with the Italian immigrants at the bottom of the social pecking order. They suffered the most from Spanish influenza - likely due to their cramped living conditions, distrust of authority, and coexisting health conditions like TB - yet, in some ways, the illness seemed to pave the way for their integration and acceptance into New York society.

The psychological impact of pandemics is discussed too. Spinney freely admits that it's hard to separate the impact of the First World War and the impact of the Spanish Influenza - but countries that were neutral in the war, such as Norway, provide an insight into the devastation caused by the virus alone. She also looks at the impact of some measures used against the influenza, such as social distancing. These are particularly poignant to read when social distancing is happening again.

"As time went on, fatigue set in even among those who had complied to begin with. Not only were the measured preventing them from going about their normal lives, but their efficacy appeared to be patchy at best. Role models forgot themselves. The mayor of San Francisco let his face mask dangle while watching a parade to celebrate the armistice."

Of course, the Spanish Influenza and COVID-19 cannot be directly equated, and I don't think the observations that Spinney makes are all directly applicable to the current situation. However, it makes everything seem that bit closer to home - it makes the shocking sound relatable, the varying approaches taken by authorities understandable, the mistakes believable. This would be a brilliant book outside of another global pandemic, but in one, it strikes a new tone.

"Experience has shown that people have a low tolerance for mandatory health measures, and that such measures are most effective when they are voluntary, when they respect and demand an individual choice, and when they avoid the use of police powers."

The third part - the aftermath - was far more conjecture than the previous sections. It is very hard to attribute things that happened afterwards just to the influenza, especially given that the epidemic happened just after a major world war. Spinney looks at the potential impact on everything from policy to poetry, drawing some links which sound plausible and others which probably are not. Some might argue that this section doesn't have a place in a scientific book, but Spinney has her reasons for each point made, and she backs up each venture with sources and evidence. I thought the other sections were stronger, but this part still raises plenty for discussion.

I feel obliged to point out one point that I disagreed with. Spinney states that we are in an AIDS pandemic - and certainly, many countries in the world have a huge burden of AIDS, but we are now in an era where effective retrovirals can made HIV a disease to live with, not die of. With correct treatment, HIV cannot be passed on, and it will not progress to AIDS. I would argue that we no longer have an AIDS pandemic, but some countries with AIDS epidemics. There has already been far too much stigma around HIV and AIDS - in 2020, this doesn't need to be perpetuated further.

Overall, Spinney has written a well-researched and timely account of the Spanish Influenza pandemic. Many people may not want to read about a global pandemic whilst in the grips of one - but for those who do, I can highly recommend this book. It will be even more interesting to read this again once COVID-19 has been consigned to history, and see how close the resemblance really was.

A book which couldn't get more timely, this is fascinating reading as we're all in Covid-19 lockdown. Reactions may vary, but personally I find it reassuring to read books like this (also Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year, Camus' La Peste/The Plague) since they remind us that what we're experiencing is far from new, that 'social distancing' measures have swung into place throughout history (the regular shutting of Renaissance playhouses, for example, are what made Shakespeare switch to writing Venus & Adonis since he couldn't make any money from plays), and that far worst pandemics have been survived.

Spinney, a science journalist, centres her narrative on the 2018 Spanish Flu outbreak which killed a jaw-dropping 100 million people, more than WW1 and WW2 put together. She expands out of this, though, giving us potted histories on how viruses work, the first flu outbreaks (probably C5th BCE), vaccination, the spread of disease via colonisation of the 'New World', medical 'remedies' and a whole host of semi-related topics. Each mini-essay is short so this is the kind of book it's very easy to dip in and out of. Written for a popular audience, there's no scary science here. If knowledge is your way of curbing anxiety, this is highly recommended.

I couldn’t download this copy which is a real shame because this timely book seemed to promise some interesting insights into pandemics!

I was unable to access this title because it would not download to my kindle. I’ve always been very interested in the topic of this book, so was disappointed not to be able to read it. Many thanks anyway!

I am unable to give feedback as due to downloading issues I have not been able to read this book.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this title before it’s publication and any other titles I have read. I appreciate it immensely as a way of reading such a wide variety of genres I wouldn’t normally read to allow for reviewing or recommending other readers.