Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World

Pale Rider is, hands down, the most fascinating account of a disease that I’ve ever read. Even better, it’s one of the most fascinating historical accounts overall. For these reasons alone, anyone with an interest in topics such as the 1918 flu pandemic will get much out of Laura Spinney’s excellent account. This book takes on special significance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only does it showcase just how little has changed in the past 102 years, but it also acts as almost a crystal ball into the next 20 years or so of humanity. It’s impossible to read about each stage of the 1918 flu without comparing it to what’s been happening globally in 2019-2020 (so far). Sadly, many of the worst aspects of the all too human reactions from 1918-1919 are fully on display again. And, in some cases (such as the killing of a security guard who asked a woman to wear a mask before entering a store in the US), they’ve grown even worse over time. I was particularly intrigued by Spinney’s look at how much the 1918 pandemic changed the world, ranging from healthcare to art. Combine that with a solid introduction to viruses that’s understandable for laypeople, along with the inclusion of many of that era’s most well-known historical figures, and you get a non-fiction book that’s just as riveting as many fictional medical thrillers. How many similar things will occur as a result of COVID-19? We may need to wait several decades to find out, but I hope Spinney is around to give us her insight at that time.

I bought this book and started reading it in mid-March 2020, just as it was becoming clear that the coronavirus pandemic was becoming a Very Big Deal, because the 1918 “Spanish” flu pandemic (Spinney explains that wherever the pandemic started, it wasn’t Spain) was the only one I knew of that affected the U.S. and other industrialized countries and occurred in what could—very loosely—be called modern times, and I wanted to have some idea of what might be in store. I can recommend this book, at least as a starting place, to anyone who feels the same… and I’m sure there are many. It's important to keep in mind that the virus that caused the 1918 pandemic is NOT the same as the one that causes COVID-19, or even closely related, and—probably even more important—that pandemic, even in industrialized countries, did NOT take place in anything like the society that exists now. For instance, in the America of 1918, cars were still new; the germ theory was still new (and doubtful) to a lot of people, including a fair number of doctors; there were no antibiotics (which might at least have stopped some of the pneumonia complications), let alone antiviral drugs; the concept of “virus” (meaning an unknown microorganism too small to be seen with optical microscopes or stopped by filters that removed bacteria) existed, but nobody knew exactly what they were, let alone had ever seen one; travel from one part of the world to another was less common and less easy, but massive movement of troops involved in World War I provided a very significant exception; the world population was a lot smaller; and the world, especially Europe, was just finishing a major war (which ended just as the flu epidemic reached its height), with all the preexisting disruption, shortages, poverty etc. that that implies. Nonetheless, the cause of the pandemic was a respiratory virus, spread in the same way as the present one; it spread worldwide, even to remote areas, very quickly; it killed only a small percentage of the people who caught it; and its reign lasted only about a year, but it still created a lot of tragedies and major social disruption. Spinney’s book provides a good overview of the pandemic, including discussions of its possible origin (one of the three countries suggested by the incomplete evidence available is the United States) and its known and possible long-term effects. It is not overly technical, and it focuses primarily on the social rather than the medical aspects of the disaster. It certainly offers a lot to think about in relation to the current crisis. Spinney’s brief views of the epidemic’s effects in a variety of places, including a village in China and a city in Spain, are a good reminder that the pandemic was worldwide and that its effects and people’s responses to it were strongly shaped by their different cultures. However, the book failed to do one of the chief things I was hoping it would accomplish, which was to provide details of people’s reactions and their effects on the course of the pandemic in the United States. (I did learn that not only the concept but the term “social distancing” already existed in 1918, which I would never have guessed. The concept of quarantine is much older, of course; even some animals practice it instinctively.) I have just bought another book on the pandemic, America’s Forgotten Pandemic by Alfred W. Crosby, that promises to do that.

So interesting! I wanted to learn more about the last world-wide virus pandemic, and I looked up several books on the Spanish Flu of 1918-1920 before deciding on Spinney's history, published in 2017. Easy to read with fascinating insights into the past - so many echoes of what we are going through now: debates about social distancing and the wearing of masks, fears of overwhelming the health care system, pressure to relax these measures too soon, resulting in a second wave of infections, and clear evidence that those U.S. cities that banned mass gatherings early and maintained the ban long enough, saw a 50% reduction in the death rate. Even so, this epidemic was huge and killed perhaps as many as 100 million people worldwide before it was done. One small town in Alaska lost an astonishing 40% of its population to the flu, their bodies buried in mass graves in the permafrost. Tissue from these victims, as well as a few other samples preserved in formaldehyde elsewhere, are now being studied by scientists with access to modern tools such as gene sequencing, to try to solve some of the enduring mysteries about the Spanish flu, including where did it originate (probably not Spain), why it was so lethal for some age groups and not others, and how that particular flu virus compares to others we have seen more recently.

This is is an amazingly complete - both laterally and vertically - meaning how the pandemic affected various parts of the world and how it affected future generations and events. The story is scientifically comprehensive within the limitation that neither doctors, politicians nor researchers knew what they were dealing with. After all, viruses hadn't been discovered then and the disease was compounded by war, tribal ignorance and superstitious fear by all - whether educated or not. The story includes likely predecessors of the flu back to the Romans. The political impacts were substantive from Woodrow Wilson not being able to focus on his objectives, probably because a flu-induced strokes and hence the US did not ratify the Versailles Treaty nor did it join the League of Nations. And India was caught in a search for freedom while its proponent, Ghandi, was deathly ill and trying to recruit for the British forces to use as a lever for independence negotiations. This is a fascinating story. I found it personally so because neither side of my own extended family nor those of my spouse suffered a single episode of the Spanish Flu. My mother was giving birth to her first child and my father was still in the newly formed RAF. Medical researchers and scientists are still trying to understand to this day the changes that take place to the flu virus, and particularly to the mutations that led to the killer Spanish flu of 1918. As a personal note, both I and my former spouse were stricken with the so-called "Asian Flu" of 1957 with two little kids, while on transfer from Ottawa to Calgary and stuck in a motel while awaiting a house being readied. That was bad, bad but while we were sick enough to be completely incapacitated, we lived and I would not want to go through something of the scale of the Spanish flu - and I had received an inoculation because I had been scheduled for a standby Royal flight before I left Ottawa!

This is an extremely well-researched book by the authoress Laura Spinney which brings to the fore the cultural contexts of the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, its countless casualties in millions, the Great War in the background and the science behind it which was not so very well-known then. We are astonished to learn the effects it had had on mankind and how the future course of human history was shaped by it. To contain any pandemic in future, it is important that more and more people are made aware of the science behind such outbreaks and the alterations required in our daily habits to prevent such pandemics. Mankind ought to understand that they are also connected to each other by diseases and the spread of contagious diseases. Not only does such a book play the intellectual part of widening our knowledge of the history of human diseases, it also plays a practical part in making us aware of its terrible consequences and reminding us that such outbreaks might occur in the future too.

Highly insightful from cover to cover. Like Spinney’s other book, “Proto”, there’s not a single boring page. This is one of those books that significantly shapes your view on humanity and on life.

This book is brilliant. Well written, really interesting. The reviewer saying it’s “anecdotal” is talking nonsense - the “anecdotes” are confirmed reports put into a conversational tone, I.e easier to read and digest. If you want a list of infections and death rate - read hospital reports you dumb dumb. The similarity between the Spanish flu - which you are told isn’t actually the Spanish flu, and the current pandemic is very similar. They had quarantine measures back then- in rudimentary form albeit or by accident! You won’t regret buying this book

It's a great book that offer a deep insight into how humans react to a pandemic. Really amusing and full of relevant anecdotes.