Great Influenza (Barry) - Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion of THE GREAT INFLUENZA … then take off on your own:

1. How does John M. Barry present the state of U.S. science and medicine in the pre-World War I era? Consider, for instance, that admission to medical school had more to do with one's ability to pay tuition than on academic achievement.

2. What role did the founding of John Hopkins Medical School and William Welch play in the development of modern medicine in the U.S.?

3. Talk about the many misguided decisions by military and politial leaders that eventually led to so many influenza causalities.

4. Hiram Johnson said that "the first causality when war comes is truth." What does he mean, and how does that bear on the subject of Barry's book?

5. As a layperson rather than physician or scientist, were you able to follow Barry's descriptions of the research at the time into the mechanisms of the influenza virus in the cell? Why, for instance, is influenza such a formidable opponent? Talk about the role of RNA in the spread of the disease. 

6. Talk about the toll of the disease, both in terms of number of people who contracted it and in terms of its effect on the human body.

7. Despite the horrific devastation, what were some of positive benefits that came about in the wake of the influenza?

8. Do you see any parallels between the 1918-1919 pandemic and the Coronavirus pandemic of 2019-2020? Did we forgotten the lessons of history?
(Resources by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)

top of page (summary)