Fever of War The Influenza Epidemic in the U.S. Army during World War I

A significant contribution to both military, social, and medical history. . . . Fills a void and provides a valuable corrective to a literature that ignored the role of the army in creating conditions that maximized mortality, glorified the role of the military, and provided explanations that shifted responsibility to individual and racial susceptibilities.-American Historical Review"In this lucid, well-focused book, Byerly (Univ. of Colorado) examines the 1918 influenza pandemic as experienced by the American Expeditionary Force. In writing this important analysis, Byerly joins scholars such as Alfred Crosby, whose classic study America's Forgotten Pandemic: The Influenza of 1918 remains the benchmark, and John Barry, whose The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History focuses on the role of public health. Byerly's prose is exceptionally clear and elegant. Highly recommended."-Choice"In this era of threats of anthrax, smallpox, SARS, and bird flue, are we any less assured of our ability to conquer disease than the generation of 1918? Perhaps Byerly's account of the great influenza epidemic is a clarion call to wake us from our own hubris."-Military ReviewôByerlyÆs book provides a wealth of fascinating detail. Everyone with an interest in the 1918û19 pandemic will profit from reading it.ö-Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciencesôàa significant contribution to both military, social, and medical historyà.fills a void and provides a valuable corrective to a literature that ignored the role of the army in creating conditions that maximized mortality, glorified the role of the military, and provided explanations that shifted responsibility to individual and racial susceptibilities.ö-American Historical Review"Fever of Waris an outstanding addition to the literature on U.S. participation in World War I . . . based on exhaustive research and thorough engagement with the published scholarship in medical, military, and social history. An important book whose fluently written exposition is well balanced between rigorous analysis and sensitive attention to the human beings--doctors and victims alike--who worked and suffered through the pandemic."-Robert H. Zieger, author ofAmerica's Great War: The American Experience in World War I"Fever of Waris handsome, readable, and extensively researched...It is a well-priced and wonderful addition to the historical literature and highly recommended to anyone with an interest in the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919."-Burke A. Cunha, MD,The Journal of the American Medical Association"Fever of Warmakes a powerful argument. One cannot walk away from the book without grasping the significant, tragic impact of influenza on U.S. troops in WWI, and how difficult that impact was for the nation's citizens to bear." -Boulder Daily CameraThe influenza epidemic of 1918 killed more people in one year than the Great War killed in four, sickening at least one quarter of the world's population. InFever of War, Carol R. Byerly uncovers the startling impact of the 1918 influenza epidemic on the American army, its medical officers, and their profession, a story which has long been silenced. Through medical officers' memoirs and diaries, official reports, scientific articles, and other original sources, Byerly tells a grave tale about the limits of modern medicine and warfare.The tragedy begins with overly confident medical officers who, armed with new knowledge and technologies of modern medicine, had an inflated sense of their ability to control disease. The conditions of trench warfare on the Western Front soon outflanked medical knowledge by creating an environment where the influenza virus could mutate to a lethal strain. This new flu virus soon left medical officers' confidence in tatters as thousands of soldiers and trainees died under their care. They also were unable to convince the War Department to reduce the crowding of troops aboard ships and in barracks whichByerly, Carol R. is the author of 'Fever of War The Influenza Epidemic in the U.S. Army during World War I', published 2005 under ISBN 9780814799246 and ISBN 0814799248.