
The Great Influenza
The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed

Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $18.00
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Scott Brick
-
By:
-
John M. Barry
About this listen
In the winter of 1918, 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 24 weeks than AIDS has killed in 24 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 between modern science and epidemic disease.
Magisterial in its breadth of perspective and depth of research, The Great Influenza weaves together multiple narratives, with characters ranging from William Welch, founder of the Johns Hopkins Medical School, to John D. Rockefeller and Woodrow Wilson. Ultimately a tale of triumph amid tragedy, this crisis provides us with a precise and sobering model as we confront the epidemics looming on our own horizon.
©2004, 2005 John M. Barry (P)2006 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
-
Rising Tide
- The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America
- By: John M. Barry
- Narrated by: Barry Grizzard
- Length: 4 hrs and 48 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An American epic of science, politics, race, honor, high society, and the Mississippi River, Rising Tide tells the riveting and nearly forgotten story of the greatest natural disaster this country has ever known, the Mississippi flood of 1927. The river inundated the homes of nearly one million people, helped elect Huey Long governor and made Herbert Hoover president, drove hundreds of thousands of blacks north, and transformed American society and politics forever.
-
-
Where is the rest of the book?
- By Susie on 10-21-13
By: John M. Barry
-
And the Band Played On
- Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic
- By: Randy Shilts
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 31 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By the time Rock Hudson's death in 1985 alerted all America to the danger of the AIDS epidemic, the disease had spread across the nation, killing thousands of people and emerging as the greatest health crisis of the 20th century. America faced a troubling question: What happened? How was this epidemic allowed to spread so far before it was taken seriously?
-
-
The subtitle says it all!
- By January Johnson on 03-19-13
By: Randy Shilts
-
American Prometheus
- The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
- By: Kai Bird, Martin J. Sherwin
- Narrated by: Jeff Cummings
- Length: 26 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
J. Robert Oppenheimer was one of the iconic figures of the 20th century, a brilliant physicist who led the effort to build the atomic bomb but later confronted the moral consequences of scientific progress. When he proposed international controls over atomic materials, opposed the development of the hydrogen bomb, and criticized plans for a nuclear war, his ideas were anathema to powerful advocates of a massive nuclear buildup during the anti-Communist hysteria of the early 1950s.
-
-
An American Tragedy
- By Edith on 12-13-07
By: Kai Bird, and others
-
The Premonition
- A Pandemic Story
- By: Michael Lewis
- Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo
- Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For those who could read between the lines, the censored news out of China was terrifying. But the president insisted there was nothing to worry about. Fortunately, we are still a nation of skeptics. Fortunately, there are those among us who study pandemics and are willing to look unflinchingly at worst-case scenarios. Michael Lewis’ taut and brilliant nonfiction thriller pits a band of medical visionaries against the wall of ignorance that was the official response of the Trump administration to the outbreak of COVID-19.
-
-
Why not Michael Lewis?
- By Brian on 05-04-21
By: Michael Lewis
-
1066: The Year That Changed Everything
- By: Jennifer Paxton, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Jennifer Paxton
- Length: 3 hrs
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With this exciting and historically rich six-lecture course, experience for yourself the drama of this dynamic year in medieval history, centered on the landmark Norman Conquest. Taking you from the shores of Scandinavia and France to the battlefields of the English countryside, these lectures will plunge you into a world of fierce Viking warriors, powerful noble families, politically charged marriages, tense succession crises, epic military invasions, and much more.
-
-
History brought to life
- By Joshua on 07-10-13
By: Jennifer Paxton, and others
-
Pale Rider
- The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World
- By: Laura Spinney
- Narrated by: Paul Hodgson
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
A Predilection for Those in the Prime of Life
- By Cynthia on 02-12-18
By: Laura Spinney
-
Rising Tide
- The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America
- By: John M. Barry
- Narrated by: Barry Grizzard
- Length: 4 hrs and 48 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An American epic of science, politics, race, honor, high society, and the Mississippi River, Rising Tide tells the riveting and nearly forgotten story of the greatest natural disaster this country has ever known, the Mississippi flood of 1927. The river inundated the homes of nearly one million people, helped elect Huey Long governor and made Herbert Hoover president, drove hundreds of thousands of blacks north, and transformed American society and politics forever.
-
-
Where is the rest of the book?
- By Susie on 10-21-13
By: John M. Barry
-
And the Band Played On
- Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic
- By: Randy Shilts
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 31 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By the time Rock Hudson's death in 1985 alerted all America to the danger of the AIDS epidemic, the disease had spread across the nation, killing thousands of people and emerging as the greatest health crisis of the 20th century. America faced a troubling question: What happened? How was this epidemic allowed to spread so far before it was taken seriously?
-
-
The subtitle says it all!
- By January Johnson on 03-19-13
By: Randy Shilts
-
American Prometheus
- The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
- By: Kai Bird, Martin J. Sherwin
- Narrated by: Jeff Cummings
- Length: 26 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
J. Robert Oppenheimer was one of the iconic figures of the 20th century, a brilliant physicist who led the effort to build the atomic bomb but later confronted the moral consequences of scientific progress. When he proposed international controls over atomic materials, opposed the development of the hydrogen bomb, and criticized plans for a nuclear war, his ideas were anathema to powerful advocates of a massive nuclear buildup during the anti-Communist hysteria of the early 1950s.
-
-
An American Tragedy
- By Edith on 12-13-07
By: Kai Bird, and others
-
The Premonition
- A Pandemic Story
- By: Michael Lewis
- Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo
- Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For those who could read between the lines, the censored news out of China was terrifying. But the president insisted there was nothing to worry about. Fortunately, we are still a nation of skeptics. Fortunately, there are those among us who study pandemics and are willing to look unflinchingly at worst-case scenarios. Michael Lewis’ taut and brilliant nonfiction thriller pits a band of medical visionaries against the wall of ignorance that was the official response of the Trump administration to the outbreak of COVID-19.
-
-
Why not Michael Lewis?
- By Brian on 05-04-21
By: Michael Lewis
-
1066: The Year That Changed Everything
- By: Jennifer Paxton, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Jennifer Paxton
- Length: 3 hrs
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With this exciting and historically rich six-lecture course, experience for yourself the drama of this dynamic year in medieval history, centered on the landmark Norman Conquest. Taking you from the shores of Scandinavia and France to the battlefields of the English countryside, these lectures will plunge you into a world of fierce Viking warriors, powerful noble families, politically charged marriages, tense succession crises, epic military invasions, and much more.
-
-
History brought to life
- By Joshua on 07-10-13
By: Jennifer Paxton, and others
-
Pale Rider
- The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World
- By: Laura Spinney
- Narrated by: Paul Hodgson
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
A Predilection for Those in the Prime of Life
- By Cynthia on 02-12-18
By: Laura Spinney
-
The Code Breaker
- Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Kathe Mazur, Walter Isaacson
- Length: 16 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The bestselling author of Leonardo da Vinci and Steve Jobs returns with a “compelling” (The Washington Post) account of how Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna and her colleagues launched a revolution that will allow us to cure diseases, fend off viruses, and have healthier babies.
-
-
Except for the author, this book is good!
- By Johan on 03-14-21
By: Walter Isaacson
-
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
- A History of Nazi Germany
- By: William L. Shirer
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 57 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since its publication in 1960, William L. Shirer’s monumental study of Hitler’s German empire has been widely acclaimed as the definitive record of the 20th century’s blackest hours. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich offers an unparalleled and thrillingly told examination of how Adolf Hitler nearly succeeded in conquering the world. With millions of copies in print around the globe, it has attained the status of a vital and enduring classic.
-
-
Held my interest for 57 hours and 13 minutes
- By Jonnie on 11-08-10
-
Crisis in the Red Zone
- The Story of the Deadliest Ebola Outbreak in History, and of the Outbreaks to Come
- By: Richard Preston
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 13 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An urgent wake-up call about the future of emerging viruses and a gripping account of the doctors and scientists fighting to protect us, told through the story of the deadly 2013-2014 Ebola epidemic. From the number-one best-selling author of The Hot Zone, now a National Geographic original miniseries....
-
-
Much thriller, not so much science
- By ahoi on 07-28-19
By: Richard Preston
-
The Ghost Map
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is a thrilling historical account of the worst cholera outbreak in Victorian London and a brilliant exploration of how Dr. John Snow's solution revolutionized the way we think about disease, cities, science, and the modern world.
-
-
It was okay until the end
- By Matthew Groom on 12-04-08
By: Steven Johnson
-
The Hot Zone
- A Terrifying True Story
- By: Richard Preston
- Narrated by: Richard M. Davidson
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A highly infectious, deadly virus from the central African rain forest suddenly appears in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. There is no cure. In a few days, 90 percent of its victims are dead. A secret military SWAT team of soldiers and scientists is mobilized to stop the outbreak of this exotic "hot" virus. The Hot Zone tells this dramatic story, giving a hair-raising account of the appearance of rare and lethal viruses and their "crashes" into the human race. Shocking, frightening, and impossible to ignore, The Hot Zone proves that truth really is scarier than fiction.
-
-
If you love viruses and gore and non-fiction...
- By aaron on 01-05-12
By: Richard Preston
-
The Emperor of All Maladies
- A Biography of Cancer
- By: Siddhartha Mukherjee
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 22 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Emperor of All Maladies reveals the many faces of an iconic, shape-shifting disease that is the defining plague of our generation. The story of cancer is a story of human ingenuity, resilience, and perseverance but also of hubris, arrogance, paternalism, and misperception, all leveraged against a disease that, just three decades ago, was thought to be easily vanquished in an all-out "war against cancer".
-
-
Incredible
- By S.R.E. on 03-02-16
-
Alone at Dawn
- Medal of Honor Recipient John Chapman and the Untold Story of the World's Deadliest Special Operations Force
- By: Dan Schilling, Lori Longfritz
- Narrated by: Kiff VandenHeuvel, Betsy Foldes Meiman
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the predawn hours of March 4, 2002, just below the 10,000-foot peak of a mountain in eastern Afghanistan, a fierce battle raged. Outnumbered by Al Qaeda fighters, Air Force Combat Controller John Chapman and a handful of SEALs struggled to take the summit in a desperate bid to find a lost teammate. Chapman, leading the charge, was gravely wounded in the initial assault. Believing he was dead, his SEAL leader ordered a retreat. Chapman regained consciousness, alone with the enemy closing in on three sides, beginning the most difficult and exceptional fight of his life.
-
-
Wasted chance to honor a hero.
- By Scott on 07-11-19
By: Dan Schilling, and others
-
The Gene
- An Intimate History
- By: Siddhartha Mukherjee
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Length: 19 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The extraordinary Siddhartha Mukherjee has written a biography of the gene as deft, brilliant, and illuminating as his extraordinarily successful biography of cancer. Weaving science, social history, and personal narrative to tell us the story of one of the most important conceptual breakthroughs of modern times, Mukherjee animates the quest to understand human heredity and its surprising influence on our lives, personalities, identities, fates, and choices.
-
-
It's a Wonderful Book
- By JKC on 06-02-16
-
The Path Between the Seas
- The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914
- By: David McCullough
- Narrated by: Nelson Runger
- Length: 31 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Path Between the Seas tells the story of the men and women who fought against all odds to fulfill the 400-year-old dream of constructing an aquatic passageway between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It is a story of astonishing engineering feats, tremendous medical accomplishments, political power plays, heroic successes, and tragic failures. McCullough expertly weaves the many strands of this momentous event into a captivating tale.
-
-
No Stone Unturned
- By Tim on 06-25-13
By: David McCullough
-
The Wager
- A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder
- By: David Grann
- Narrated by: Dion Graham, David Grann
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty’s Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as “the prize of all the oceans,” it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia.
-
-
Gasping for Air
- By Jean Engle on 04-19-23
By: David Grann
-
Midnight in Chernobyl
- By: Adam Higginbotham
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 13 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
April 25, 1986 in Chernobyl was a turning point in world history. The disaster not only changed the world’s perception of nuclear power and the science that spawned it, but also our understanding of the planet’s delicate ecology. With the images of the abandoned homes and playgrounds beyond the barbed wire of the 30-kilometer Exclusion Zone, the rusting graveyards of contaminated trucks and helicopters, the farmland lashed with black rain, the event fixed for all time the notion of radiation as an invisible killer.
-
-
Midnight in Chernobyl is the book to listen to.
- By NH on 03-21-19
-
Dead Wake
- The Last Crossing of the Lusitania
- By: Erik Larson
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 13 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On May 1, 1915, with WWI entering its tenth month, a luxury ocean liner as richly appointed as an English country house sailed out of New York, bound for Liverpool, carrying a record number of children and infants. The passengers were surprisingly at ease, even though Germany had declared the seas around Britain to be a war zone. For months, German U-boats had brought terror to the North Atlantic.
-
-
Naivety VS Barbarians Of War
- By Sara on 03-05-16
By: Erik Larson
Critic reviews
"Monumental...powerfully intelligent...not just a masterful narrative...but also an authoritative and disturbing morality tale." (Chicago Tribune)
"Easily our fullest, richest, most panoramic history of the subject." (The New York Times Book Review)
"Hypnotizing, horrifying, energetic, lucid prose...." (Providence Observer)
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
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
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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
-
Influenza
- The Hundred-Year Hunt to Cure the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic
- By: Dr. Jeremy Brown
- Narrated by: Holter Graham
- Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the 100th anniversary of the devastating pandemic of 1918, Jeremy Brown, a veteran ER doctor, explores the troubling, terrifying, and complex history of the flu virus, from the origins of the Great Flu that killed millions, to vexing questions such as: are we prepared for the next epidemic, should you get a flu shot, and how close are we to finding a cure?
-
-
Important read
- By Kathryn C. on 12-21-18
By: Dr. Jeremy Brown
-
Rising Tide
- The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America
- By: John M. Barry
- Narrated by: Barry Grizzard
- Length: 4 hrs and 48 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An American epic of science, politics, race, honor, high society, and the Mississippi River, Rising Tide tells the riveting and nearly forgotten story of the greatest natural disaster this country has ever known, the Mississippi flood of 1927. The river inundated the homes of nearly one million people, helped elect Huey Long governor and made Herbert Hoover president, drove hundreds of thousands of blacks north, and transformed American society and politics forever.
-
-
Where is the rest of the book?
- By Susie on 10-21-13
By: John M. Barry
-
Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul
- Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty
- By: John M. Barry
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 17 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is a story of power, set against Puritan America and the English Civil War. Williams's interactions with King James, Francis Bacon, Oliver Cromwell, and his mentor Edward Coke set his course, but his fundamental ideas came to fruition in America, as Williams, though a Puritan, collided with John Winthrop's vision of his "City upon a Hill."
-
-
Fascinating Story and Legacy
- By Bruce on 04-11-12
By: John M. Barry
-
The Ghost Map
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is a thrilling historical account of the worst cholera outbreak in Victorian London and a brilliant exploration of how Dr. John Snow's solution revolutionized the way we think about disease, cities, science, and the modern world.
-
-
It was okay until the end
- By Matthew Groom on 12-04-08
By: Steven Johnson
-
Rabid
- A Cultural History of the World’s Most Diabolical Virus
- By: Bill Wasik, Monica Murphy
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The most fatal virus known to science, rabies kills nearly 100 percent of its victims once the infection takes root in the brain. From Greek myths to zombie flicks, from the laboratory heroics of Louis Pasteur to the contemporary search for a lifesaving treatment, Rabid is a fresh, fascinating, and often wildly entertaining look at one of mankind’s oldest and most fearsome foes.
-
-
Unexpected and Intriguing
- By Cynthia on 06-09-13
By: Bill Wasik, and others
-
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
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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
-
Influenza
- The Hundred-Year Hunt to Cure the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic
- By: Dr. Jeremy Brown
- Narrated by: Holter Graham
- Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the 100th anniversary of the devastating pandemic of 1918, Jeremy Brown, a veteran ER doctor, explores the troubling, terrifying, and complex history of the flu virus, from the origins of the Great Flu that killed millions, to vexing questions such as: are we prepared for the next epidemic, should you get a flu shot, and how close are we to finding a cure?
-
-
Important read
- By Kathryn C. on 12-21-18
By: Dr. Jeremy Brown
-
Rising Tide
- The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America
- By: John M. Barry
- Narrated by: Barry Grizzard
- Length: 4 hrs and 48 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An American epic of science, politics, race, honor, high society, and the Mississippi River, Rising Tide tells the riveting and nearly forgotten story of the greatest natural disaster this country has ever known, the Mississippi flood of 1927. The river inundated the homes of nearly one million people, helped elect Huey Long governor and made Herbert Hoover president, drove hundreds of thousands of blacks north, and transformed American society and politics forever.
-
-
Where is the rest of the book?
- By Susie on 10-21-13
By: John M. Barry
-
Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul
- Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty
- By: John M. Barry
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 17 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is a story of power, set against Puritan America and the English Civil War. Williams's interactions with King James, Francis Bacon, Oliver Cromwell, and his mentor Edward Coke set his course, but his fundamental ideas came to fruition in America, as Williams, though a Puritan, collided with John Winthrop's vision of his "City upon a Hill."
-
-
Fascinating Story and Legacy
- By Bruce on 04-11-12
By: John M. Barry
-
The Ghost Map
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is a thrilling historical account of the worst cholera outbreak in Victorian London and a brilliant exploration of how Dr. John Snow's solution revolutionized the way we think about disease, cities, science, and the modern world.
-
-
It was okay until the end
- By Matthew Groom on 12-04-08
By: Steven Johnson
-
Rabid
- A Cultural History of the World’s Most Diabolical Virus
- By: Bill Wasik, Monica Murphy
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The most fatal virus known to science, rabies kills nearly 100 percent of its victims once the infection takes root in the brain. From Greek myths to zombie flicks, from the laboratory heroics of Louis Pasteur to the contemporary search for a lifesaving treatment, Rabid is a fresh, fascinating, and often wildly entertaining look at one of mankind’s oldest and most fearsome foes.
-
-
Unexpected and Intriguing
- By Cynthia on 06-09-13
By: Bill Wasik, and others
-
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
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
The Great Mortality
- By Amazon Customer on 10-16-24
By: John Kelly
-
Pathogenesis
- A History of the World in Eight Plagues
- By: Jonathan Kennedy
- Narrated by: Jonathan Kennedy
- Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
According to the accepted narrative of progress, humans have thrived thanks to their brains and brawn, collectively bending the arc of history. But in this revelatory book, Professor Jonathan Kennedy argues that the myth of human exceptionalism overstates the role that we play in social and political change. Instead, it is the humble microbe that wins wars and topples empires.
-
-
Devolves into political advocacy
- By Mark Fackler on 04-29-23
By: Jonathan Kennedy
-
Polio
- An American Story
- By: David M. Oshinsky
- Narrated by: Jonathan Hogan
- Length: 14 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This comprehensive and gripping narrative, which received the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for history, covers all the challenges, characters, and controversies in America's relentless struggle against polio. Funded by philanthropy and grassroots contributions, Salk's killed-virus vaccine (1954) and Sabin's live-virus vaccine (1961) began to eradicate this dreaded disease.
-
-
Wonderful
- By Patricia B Tripoli on 07-22-08
-
America's Forgotten Pandemic (Second Edition)
- The Influenza of 1918
- By: Alfred W. Crosby
- Narrated by: Rick Adamson
- Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Between August 1918 and March 1919, the Spanish influenza spread worldwide, claiming over 25 million lives. In this vivid narrative, Alfred W. Crosby recounts the course of the pandemic during the panic-stricken months of 1918 and 1919, measures its impact on American society, and probes the curious loss of national memory of this cataclysmic event. This edition includes a preface discussing the then-recent outbreaks of diseases, including the Asian flu and the SARS epidemic.
-
-
A full account with lessons for today
- By Jackson Babb on 07-30-22
By: Alfred W. Crosby
-
The Hot Zone
- A Terrifying True Story
- By: Richard Preston
- Narrated by: Richard M. Davidson
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A highly infectious, deadly virus from the central African rain forest suddenly appears in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. There is no cure. In a few days, 90 percent of its victims are dead. A secret military SWAT team of soldiers and scientists is mobilized to stop the outbreak of this exotic "hot" virus. The Hot Zone tells this dramatic story, giving a hair-raising account of the appearance of rare and lethal viruses and their "crashes" into the human race. Shocking, frightening, and impossible to ignore, The Hot Zone proves that truth really is scarier than fiction.
-
-
If you love viruses and gore and non-fiction...
- By aaron on 01-05-12
By: Richard Preston
-
Where Men Win Glory
- The Odyssey of Pat Tillman
- By: Jon Krakauer
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Like the men whose epic stories Jon Krakauer has told in his previous bestsellers, Pat Tillman was an irrepressible individualist and iconoclast. In May 2002, Tillman walked away from his $3.6 million NFL contract to enlist in the United States Army. He was deeply troubled by 9/11, and he felt a strong moral obligation to join the fight against al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Two years later, he died on a desolate hillside in southeastern Afghanistan.
-
-
Good book, painful narration
- By Daniel on 09-23-09
By: Jon Krakauer
-
Dead Wake
- The Last Crossing of the Lusitania
- By: Erik Larson
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 13 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On May 1, 1915, with WWI entering its tenth month, a luxury ocean liner as richly appointed as an English country house sailed out of New York, bound for Liverpool, carrying a record number of children and infants. The passengers were surprisingly at ease, even though Germany had declared the seas around Britain to be a war zone. For months, German U-boats had brought terror to the North Atlantic.
-
-
Naivety VS Barbarians Of War
- By Sara on 03-05-16
By: Erik Larson
-
Pale Rider
- The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World
- By: Laura Spinney
- Narrated by: Paul Hodgson
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
A Predilection for Those in the Prime of Life
- By Cynthia on 02-12-18
By: Laura Spinney
-
Viruses, Plagues, and History
- Past, Present, and Future
- By: Michael B. A. Oldstone
- Narrated by: L.J. Ganser
- Length: 13 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The story of viruses and humanity is a story of fear and ignorance, of grief and heartbreak, and of great bravery and sacrifice. Michael Oldstone tells all these stories as he illuminates the history of the devastating diseases that have tormented humanity, focusing mostly on the most famous viruses. For this revised edition, Oldstone includes discussions of new viruses like SARS, bird flu, virally caused cancers, chronic wasting disease, and West Nile. Viruses, Plagues, and History paints a sweeping portrait of humanity's long-standing conflict with our unseen viral enemies.
-
-
very detailed, but very statistical
- By ekhensel15 on 01-12-19
-
Spillover
- By: David Quammen
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 20 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The emergence of strange new diseases is a frightening problem that seems to be getting worse. In this age of speedy travel, it threatens a worldwide pandemic. We hear news reports of Ebola, SARS, AIDS, and something called Hendra killing horses and people in Australia - but those reports miss the big truth that such phenomena are part of a single pattern. The bugs that transmit these diseases share one thing: they originate in wild animals and pass to humans by a process called spillover. David Quammen tracks this subject around the world.
-
-
Fascinating, but not Riveting
- By L. M. Roberts on 03-08-14
By: David Quammen
-
Peter the Great
- His Life and World
- By: Robert K. Massie
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 43 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This superbly told story brings to life one of the most remarkable rulers––and men––in all of history and conveys the drama of his life and world. The Russia of Peter's birth was very different from the Russia his energy, genius, and ruthlessness shaped. Crowned co-Tsar as a child of ten, after witnessing bloody uprisings in the streets of Moscow, he would grow up propelled by an unquenchable curiosity, everywhere looking, asking, tinkering, and learning, fired by Western ideas.
-
-
Narrater ruins everything
- By BrendaLouQuilts on 12-30-11
By: Robert K. Massie
-
The Premonition
- A Pandemic Story
- By: Michael Lewis
- Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo
- Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For those who could read between the lines, the censored news out of China was terrifying. But the president insisted there was nothing to worry about. Fortunately, we are still a nation of skeptics. Fortunately, there are those among us who study pandemics and are willing to look unflinchingly at worst-case scenarios. Michael Lewis’ taut and brilliant nonfiction thriller pits a band of medical visionaries against the wall of ignorance that was the official response of the Trump administration to the outbreak of COVID-19.
-
-
Why not Michael Lewis?
- By Brian on 05-04-21
By: Michael Lewis
The Great Infulenza
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
There are so many similarities today to the 1918 Influenza. So much learned and disregarded or forgotten. The book explains the science involved to identify the influenza and some it applies to the Coronavirus. The rapid spread is also similar. This book is a great listen. The story is very engaging and the narrator is good.
Highly recommended.
Listened to it 4 times
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
However - and this is a big however - Scott Brick's narration is SO syrupy, sing-songy, and melodramatic that I found it very difficult to listen to. Brick appears to be the favorite narrator of the audiobook world, but his delivery is so cloying that it actually undermines the drama native to the account of the 1918 epidemic. History doesn't need to be acted as though it were a radio melodrama.
Extraordinary torture
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great public health
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A Terrifying Distant Mirror
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
a great history of our medical exploration
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great book! Four stars from a tough critic...
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
I absolutely recommend this to everyone. It is an in-depth examination into the history we don't learn in our textbooks in school. The author transports you to the early 20th century and guides you through every aspect that made the 1919 Influenza Pandemic possible.What was one of the most memorable moments of The Great Influenza?
For years, I have taught my students that Woodrow Wilson died of a stroke. No longer. The author's evidence is compelling enough that I researched this fact myself (formerly I just accepted what was written in most history books). For all intents and purposes, Woodrow Wilson died of complications due to influenza.What three words best describe Scott Brick’s voice?
Smooth, mesmerizing, compelling.Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
Especially moving was the discussion of how the bodies piled up so quickly, emergency responders and city officials either too sick or too afraid to clear the streets, family members too ill to even remove bodies of their loved ones from their homes. The generation of orphans that the pandemic left is staggering.Any additional comments?
As someone who rather enjoys dis-topian sci-fi as well as the armageddon-zombie-disaster genre, this book totally delivers. Except it's non-fiction. Made me want to stock up on hand sanitizer and move forward with my doomsday pantry.Who needs fiction like The Walking Dead
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This book was very informative, if not unsetteling. I recommend this to everyone.
Scott brick does an awsome job with the narration.
Lots of info on progression of medical field
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
What is certain is that, as usual, humanity has learned nothing at all from past mistakes, those we should listen to see ignored and those who we should ignore are placed on a pedestal.
Back to the future?
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.