Albert Marrin has apparently written quite a few history books, mostly on American wars. But I placed a hold on works about mankind’s relationship with rats and another about the Triangle Shirtwaist fire after finishing this interesting book about the 1918 Spanish Flu. The man definitely has some varied interests.
“In the United States, influenza death rates were so high that the average life span fell by twelve years, from fifty-one in 1917 to thirty-nine in 1918. If you were a “doughboy”—slang for an American soldier—you had a better chance of dying in bed from flu or flu-related complications than from enemy action.”
The Spanish Flu was the most deadly pandemic in history. According to Marrin, “It was by far the worst thing that has ever happened to humankind; not even the Black Death of the Middle Ages comes close in the number of lives it took.” That’s crazy. And it’s something that doesn’t get brought up all that much. Think of how often a reference is made to the Black Plague vs. how often you really hear about the Spanish flu.
My mother’s family took in two orphans from the flu and raised them as their own. This happened A LOT. An entire generation of children lost their entire families, and the lucky ones were taken in by others. One of the unusual things about this flu was the demographics affected. Instead of most flu epidemics, in which the very young and the very old were most likely to die, this flu targeted young adults — almost half of all fatalities were between 20 and 40 years old. This is because it caused a cytokine storm in the immune system, and the healthier the immune system, the stronger the body attacked itself.
And of course, a war was raging in Europe during this time, being fought by men in their 20s, 30s, 40s. The full affect of the flu on the outcome of World War I can’t really be known, but Marrin examines every aspect. Y’all, it’s just a really interesting book. 1918 was only 100 years ago. That’s really not that far removed from us. There are lessons we can learn from this epidemic.