With a death toll of between 50 and 100 million people and a global reach, the flu pandemic of 1918–1920 was the greatest human disaster, not only of the twentieth century, but possibly in all of recorded history. And yet, in our popular conception it exists largely as a footnote to World War I.
In Pale Rider, Laura Spinney recounts the story of an overlooked pandemic, tracing it from Alaska to Brazil, from Persia to Spain, and from South Africa to Odessa. She shows how the pandemic was shaped by the interaction of a virus and the humans it encountered, and how this devastating natural experiment put both the ingenuity and the vulnerability of humans to the test.
She demonstrates that the Spanish flu was as significant – if not more so – as two world wars in shaping the modern world; in disrupting, and often permanently altering, global politics, race relations, family structures, and thinking across medicine, religion and the arts.
[Spinney knows] just which medical mysteries and haunting vignettes will give the pandemic full purchase on our imaginations.
New York Times
Pale Rider is not just an excavation but a reimagining of the past.
Guardian
Riveting
Sunday Times
MagisterialObserver
Lausanne is a cosmopolitan city located at the heart of Europe. Viewing it as a microcosm of the continent as a whole, Laura Spinney goes out to meet its inhabitants. The result is a portrait of a European city painted in the words of the people who live and work there. Encountered in the street, in their bedroom, on a barge or in the belfry of the cathedral, 68 individuals talk about their hopes, their fears and their daily lives. Bankers, prostitutes, illegal immigrants, pillars of the community… From the grassroots up, they build a city in Europe at the beginning of the 21st century.
Voici le portrait d’une ville européenne, Lausanne, peinte par les mots des personnes qui y habitent ou qui y travaillent. Rencontrés dans la rue, dans leur chambre, sur une barge ou dans le beffroi de la cathédrale, soixante-huit individus parlent de leurs espoirs, de leurs inquiétudes et de leur vie quotidienne. Banquiers, prostituées, clandestins, piliers de la communauté… Mot par mot, du sol au ciel, ils construisent une ville en Europe au début du XXIe siècle.