Summary Of The Great Influenza By John Barry

The book “The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History, written by John M. Barry, covers the progression of the Spanish influenza, especially in the United States. Barry focuses not only on the influenza itself, though, but also on the social influences that allowed the virus to flourish. The book covers how medical practices in the United States had risen up just in time to combat the virus, but, due to societal issues and the war, the doctors struggled in areas where they should have been successful.

John M. Barry, the author of The Great Influenza, writes about scientists and the obstacles they face. He claims that scientists are explorers in the wilderness that is science. There is no charted path to go down and no one to follow. Scientists will always be uncertain, however scientists should possess certain characteristics to overcome the doubt. He appeals to our emotions to explain the necessary characteristics a scientist has to posses. John M. Barry uses anaphoras, motifs, and pathos in his definition of what scientists do.

The quote delivered by the intelligent and insightful John M Barry states, “To be a scientist requires not only intelligence and curiosity, but passion, patience, creativity, self-sufficiency, and courage” (Barry 5). Scientists endure a great amount of adversity than most people think. They have to retain a wide variety of skills to assist them in different circumstances that form in their laboratory. Scientist need to have persistence, so that when they fail, they will be willing to try again. As well as, acceptance to come to terms with the fact that an experiment turns out the opposite of their theory. In John M Barry’s passage,“The Great Influenza” he utilizes direct diction and powerful punctuation to characterize scientific research.

Brilliant author, John M. Barry, once proclaimed, “Uncertainty makes one tentative if not fearful, and tentative steps, even when in the right direction, may not overcome significant obstacles… It is the courage to accept—indeed, embrace—uncertainty” (Barry 3-5 & 9-10). These quotes can be traced back to John M. Barry’s passage of “The Great Influenza,” where he writes an account about the 1918 flu epidemic that struck the world. In his account, he goes into further explanation about the rigors and fulfillment of being a scientist, and simultaneously, discusses the tedious process of their research. Ultimately, society is educated that the life of a scientist should not be absolute, but it should consist of persistence and courage. In John M. Barry’s “The Great Influenza,” the author employs innovative metaphors and unique rhetorical questions to portray scientific research.

Attention Getting Device: John Barry, in his writing, The Great Influenza, he states, “To be a scientist requires not only intelligence and curiosity, but passion, patience, creativity, self-sufficiency, and courage. It is not the courage to venture into the unknown. It is the courage to accept — indeed, embrace — uncertainty” (Barry 2). During all eras of time, scientists have endured enormous amounts of adversity. Scientists have had to maintain a wide variety of skills in several different areas to assist them in different circumstances that they endure. Scientists must have persistence, due to their main activity being trial and error. This means that once they have failed, they most certainly have to be willing to try it again. A scientist also must posses acceptance, as there will be times when they receive results that are not their predictions. Scientist must obtain acceptance to come to terms with the results found in their laboratory. In John Barry’s The Great Influenza, he utilizes metonymy and rhetorical questioning to characterize scientific research.

In the early 1900’s medicine was making some steps closer into some great improvements for health and better understanding of the human body. Doctors with sufficient knowledge of the human body and cures for diseases and viruses were scarce. People were much more concerned with government and politics, than health and medicine, until one of the greatest and most grotesque lethal pandemics that’s struck the earth in human history. This pandemic the “Spanish Flu” spread so rapidly and had an extremely high mortality rate. This was caused by the close contact of humans and poor cleanliness and sanitation, and the host (virus) and the body taking harsh action

The Great Influenza is a book not many enjoy. However, Dr. Petri enjoys this book for reasons that are lost to many. The book starts off on part one chapter 1 the Warriors. it starts off with imagery of September 12, 1876 talking about it crowd in an auditorium in Baltimore’s Academy of music. this was too launch John Hopkins University where they say they would change all of American education and in this first page you meet Thomas H. Huxley an English scientist who is the keynote speaker of this event. then give me George Armstrong Custer who “led the seventh Cavalry to with the stretching at the hands of him video savages resisting encroachment of the white man.” customer had spoke on the front page of the Washington star. then the book starts going deeper into detail

The book The Great Influenza by John Barry takes us back to arguably one of the greatest medical disasters in human history, the book focuses on the influenza pandemic which took place in the year 1918. The world was at war in the First World War and with everyone preoccupied with happenings in Europe and winning the war, the influenza pandemic struck when the human race was least ready and most distracted by happenings all over the world. In total the influenza pandemic killed over a hundred million people on a global scale, clearly more than most of the deadliest diseases in modern times. John Barry leaves little to imagination in his book as he gives a vivid description of the influenza pandemic of 1918 and exactly how this pandemic affected the human race. The book clearly outlines the human activities that more or less handed the human race to the influenza on a silver platter. “There was a war on, a war we had to win” (Barry, p.337). An element of focus in the book is the political happenings back at the time not only in the United States of America but also all over the world and how politicians playing politics set the way for perhaps the greatest pandemic in human history to massacre millions of people. The book also takes an evaluator look at the available medical installations and technological proficiencies and how the influenza pandemic has affected medicine all over the world.

The 1918 influenza had a catastrophic impact on the world. It washed over the world in waves, killing millions from even the most remote places on every continent. No one was safe from this lethal disease. It also had an odd pattern in victims that nobody had seen before, killing strong and healthy people. It was a ruthless disease that devastated it’s victims and killed them in a macabre way.

In a passage from The Great Influenza, John M Barry writes about what is required of scientists to engage in scientific research. Discussing scientific research as a whole, the author elaborates on the difficult nature of such scientific endeavors and the roles that scientists play in the uncertainty-riddled process in a manner for the readers of his book, including many non-science individuals, to help the ideas of science gain greater respect. In sharing insight into the world that scientists face, Barry effectively depicts the trials of scientific research through descriptive imagery and great emphasis on the difficult nature of scientific tasks.

In the book, The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History, John Barry discusses the 1918 influenza pandemic. In the prologue, Paul Lewis, a physician who spent most of his time in the laboratory, was introduced. He had encountered the disease only once, but he had seen the devastating affects it had on the human body and this was enough impetus for him to try to end this virus. After the prologue, Barry shifts the topic to medicine in America (this was my favorite part of the book). Admission into medical school wasn’t based on academic scholarship or merit; instead, it was based on whether the applicant could pay the tuition. So William Henry Welch established the John Hopkins School of Medicine, a school that would

Albert Einstein is a very famous person. A lot of people would call him ionic and influential in human history. His theories have helped people understand the world they live in. He was a philosopher and a humanist; he was determined to figure out how things worked. He left such a great impact that you can go anywhere around the world and his work, image and theories are known; He is a legend.

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science” (Einstein). As stated in this quote, Albert Einstein was a thinker of great proportions, and he accomplished many feats. The physicist was born on March 14, 1879 in Ulm, Germany, and he passed away April 18, 1955 in Princeton, New Jersey. He made large changes across the world especially in the United States of America. His advancements in experimental theories, involvement in WWI, and in educational studies made him stand out from other physicists throughout America. Einstein was known as the greatest physicist, as well as the smartest man in the world. He presented a different perspective for people to view and understand which makes his actions and ideals valuable to the world and the United States. “He is recognized as one of the greatest

In the study of a scientist's life, it is important to recognize several key elements. Scientific contributions are of utmost importance. Following mention of those, it is then possible to look at his or her life, family, and religion as well. However, for Albert Einstein, these elements must all be looked at collectively. Einstein will no doubt go down in history as a great theoretical physicist. His work is compared in importance to that of scientists such as Galileo Galilei, Nicolas Copernicus, Johannes Kepler, and Isaac Newton. Some would even say that his contributions to science were greater. However, it is impossible to paint a complete picture of Einstein without examining his life, his religion, and his personality. His science

Albert Einstein was a German-born physicist and scientist. He made many scientific breakthroughs and had made creative and innovative inventions that revolutionized the way other scientists looked at the field of science and physics. He was a very influential physicist that changed physics in the twentieth century. There are myths, and other intriguing facts about this amazing scientist (Albert Einstein. (2017, August 04). Retrieved October 17, 2017, from https://www.biography.com/people/albert-einstein-9285408).