More Deadly than War by Kenneth C. Davis - ESSENTIAL

More Deadly than War by Kenneth C. Davis, 291 pages.  NON-FICTION  Henry Holt and Company, 2018.  $20.  

Content: Language: G; Mature Content: G; Violence: PG-13.  

BUYING ADVISORY: MS, HS – ESSENTIAL  

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE  

This book takes a look at how the Spanish Flu affected the outcome of World War I.  The Spanish Flu was called many different names as it affected people throughout the world, but the death toll was the highest since the Black Plague.  As soldiers were going off to war, they infected each other in training camp and as people came to celebrate in parades.  Within the cities in the United States, people didn’t know how they were spreading the disease, so it continued to grow.  The flu came in three different waves and the world since has learned many ways to help prevent the spread of epidemics.  

I couldn’t put this book down.  It has fantastic illustrations and reads quickly.  The author explains not only what happens here in the United States, but in other places as well.  He includes human interest stories, comparable epidemics throughout time and predictions as to how specifically the flu effected the end of the war.  The mature content is the descriptions of death and other war violence.  

C. Peterson