
Pale Rider
The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World
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Narrated by:
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Paul Hodgson
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By:
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Laura Spinney
About this listen
In 1918, the Italian-Americans of New York, the Yupik of Alaska, and the Persians of Mashed had almost nothing in common except for a virus - one that triggered the worst pandemic of modern times and had a decisive effect on the history of the 20th century.
The Spanish flu of 1918-1920 was one of the greatest human disasters of all time. It infected a third of the people on Earth - from the poorest immigrants of New York City to the king of Spain, Franz Kafka, Mahatma Gandhi, and Woodrow Wilson. But despite a death toll of between 50 and 100 million people, it exists in our memory as an afterthought to World War I.
In this gripping narrative history, Laura Spinney traces the overlooked pandemic to reveal how the virus travelled across the globe, exposing mankind's vulnerability and putting our ingenuity to the test. As socially significant as both world wars, the Spanish flu dramatically disrupted - and often permanently altered - global politics, race relations, and family structures while spurring innovation in medicine, religion, and the arts. It was partly responsible, Spinney argues, for pushing India to independence, South Africa to apartheid, and Switzerland to the brink of civil war. It also created the true "lost generation". Drawing on the latest research in history, virology, epidemiology, psychology, and economics, Pale Rider masterfully recounts the little-known catastrophe that forever changed humanity.
©2017 Laura Spinney (P)2017 Hachette AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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- Length: 18 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Roughly half the world's population speaks languages derived from a shared linguistic source known as Proto-Indo-European. But who were the early speakers of this ancient mother tongue, and how did they manage to spread it around the globe? The Horse, the Wheel, and Language solves a puzzle that has vexed scholars for two centuries and recovers a magnificent and influential civilization from the past.
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Excellent
- By Anthony on 08-09-19
By: David W. Anthony
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The Great Mortality
- An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time
- By: John Kelly
- Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies
- Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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The plague that devastated Asia and Europe in the 14th century has been of never-ending interest to both scholars and the general public. Many books on the plague rely on statistics to tell the story. In The Great Mortality, author John Kelly lends an air of immediacy and intimacy to his telling of the journey of the plague as it traveled from the steppes of Russia, across Europe, and into England, killing 75 million people—one third of the known population—before it vanished.
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The Great Mortality
- By Amazon Customer on 10-16-24
By: John Kelly
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1177 B.C. (Revised and Updated)
- The Year Civilization Collapsed
- By: Eric H. Cline
- Narrated by: Eric H. Cline
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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This audiobook narrated by acclaimed archaeologist and best-selling author Eric Cline offers a breathtaking account of how the collapse of an ancient civilized world ushered in the first Dark Ages.
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Look past the one-star reviews: this is an enlightening and engaging read.
- By Alonzo Nightjar on 03-07-22
By: Eric H. Cline
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The Great Influenza
- The True Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History (Young Readers Edition)
- By: John M. Barry
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 5 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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At the height of World War I, history’s most lethal influenza virus erupted in an army camp in Kansas, moved east with American troops, then exploded, killing as many as 100 million people worldwide. It killed more people in twenty-four months than AIDS killed in twenty-four years, more in a year than the Black Death killed in a century. But this was not the Middle Ages, and 1918 marked the first collision of science and epidemic disease.
By: John M. Barry
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Wild Faith
- How the Christian Right Is Taking Over America
- By: Talia Lavin
- Narrated by: Talia Lavin
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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From school boards to the Supreme Court, Christian theocracy is ascendant in America—and only through exploring its motivations and impacts can we understand the crisis we face. In Wild Faith, Lavin fearlessly confronts whether our democracy can survive an organized, fervent theocratic movement, one that seeks to impose its religious beliefs on American citizens.
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Rough listen
- By Nick on 12-10-24
By: Talia Lavin
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Assyria
- The Rise and Fall of the World's First Empire
- By: Eckart Frahm
- Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies
- Length: 15 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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At its height in 660 BCE, the kingdom of Assyria stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. It was the first empire the world had ever seen. Here, historian Eckart Frahm tells the epic story of Assyria and its formative role in global history. Assyria’s wide-ranging conquests have long been known from the Hebrew Bible and later Greek accounts. But nearly two centuries of research now permit a rich picture of the Assyrians and their empire beyond the battlefield.
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Too much volume change in narration
- By Erin on 06-19-24
By: Eckart Frahm
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The Crusades
- The Authoritative History of the War for the Holy Land
- By: Thomas Asbridge
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 25 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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The Crusades is an authoritative, accessible single-volume history of the brutal struggle for the Holy Land in the Middle Ages. Thomas Asbridge - a renowned historian who writes with "maximum vividness" (Joan Acocella, The New Yorker) - covers the years 1095 to 1291 in this big, ambitious, listenable account of one of the most fascinating periods in history.
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Comprehensive
- By Tad Davis on 10-04-16
By: Thomas Asbridge
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SNAFU
- The Definitive Guide to History's Greatest Screwups
- By: Ed Helms
- Narrated by: Ed Helms
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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From actor, comedian, writer, and host of the hit history podcast SNAFU, Ed Helms brings you an absurdly entertaining look at history’s biggest blunders.
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Disappointing
- By Jim E. on 06-07-25
By: Ed Helms
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Oathbreakers
- The War of Brothers That Shattered an Empire and Made Medieval Europe
- By: Matthew Gabriele, David M. Perry
- Narrated by: Paul Bellantoni
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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By the early ninth century, the Carolingian empire was at the height of its power. The Franks, led by Charlemagne, had built the largest European domain since Rome in its heyday. Though they jockeyed for power, prestige, and profit, the Frankish elites enjoyed political and cultural consensus. But just two generations later, their world was in shambles. Civil war, once an unthinkable threat, had erupted after Louis the Pious’s sons tried to overthrow him—and then placed their knives at the other’s neck. Families who had once charged into battle together now drew each other’s blood.
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History made amusing
- By Avox on 12-18-24
By: Matthew Gabriele, and others
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On Tyranny (Expanded Audio Edition)
- Updated with Twenty New Lessons from Russia's War on Ukraine
- By: Timothy Snyder
- Narrated by: Timothy Snyder
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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In this exclusive audiobook edition, which includes eight hours of new content, Snyder combines the original essays from On Tyranny with twenty new lessons that answer the questions everyone is asking about this war. With forays into history, he clarifies the causes of the Russian invasion and the meaning of Ukrainian resistance, and explains the war's connections to threats to democracy here in the United States and around the world. Linking past and present, speaking only from notes, he guides the listener into the larger moral universe of On Tyranny.
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Best book of the decade
- By Chuck on 04-21-22
By: Timothy Snyder
extremely informative; must read
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Impressive body of work. Much more comprehensive yet detailed than any other writings on this subject that I have read, it is not just a statistical report but a compilation of information gleaned from writings from many countries around the globe. The majority of other readings are focused on Europe and North America, while this includes translations from China, Russia, South America, and anywhere else afflicted. The role of The Great War in its transmission is explored as well. The devastation left behind by this pandemic amounted to a great deal more than the casualties of the war. I feel that this should be required reading for all healthcare workers as well as historians.
I have the audio interpreted by Paul Hodgson who was truly remarkable.
Must read !
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Narrator was horrible
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Required Pandemic Reading
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history repeats itself
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Required reading
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Oh how important it is to think about The Great
Influenza and how it changed the world. And how we are still finding new pieces of history
that change the way we look at WW1 and the history of epidemics.
Now more than ever
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Second, it outlines the possible preventative and mitigation strategies that could have been undertaken to contain it but were not until it was too late, largely for political and religious reasons. Sound familiar?
And third, it shows the historical context of this hideous disease, both pre- and post-pandemic. The pre-pandemic context is very much what we have been contending with in 2020. The post-pandemic context of our current debacle, of course, remains to be seen.
I cannot recommend this book too highly. It is well-researched, and it is written like the most compelling fiction. What a story!
2020 Prescience. Pale Rider, the Spanish Flu
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Deja vu
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Pre Covid
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