Try free for 30 days
-
The Great Influenza
- The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 19 hrs and 26 mins
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from Wish List failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy Now for $33.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also picked
-
1066: The Year That Changed Everything
- By: Jennifer Paxton, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Jennifer Paxton
- Length: 3 hrs
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With this exciting and historically rich six-lecture course, experience for yourself the drama of this dynamic year in medieval history, centered on the landmark Norman Conquest. Taking you from the shores of Scandinavia and France to the battlefields of the English countryside, these lectures will plunge you into a world of fierce Viking warriors, powerful noble families, politically charged marriages, tense succession crises, epic military invasions, and much more.
-
-
extremely interesting
- By Anonymous User on 30-09-2021
-
Semut
- The Untold Story of a Secret Australian Operation in WWII Borneo
- By: Christine Helliwell
- Narrated by: Dorje Swallow, Christine Helliwell
- Length: 13 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
March 1945. A handful of very young Allied operatives are parachuted into the remote jungled heart of the Japanese-occupied island of Borneo, east of Singapore, there to recruit the island's Indigenous Dayak peoples to fight the Japanese. Yet most speak next to no Borneo languages and know little about Dayaks, other than that they were once headhunters who might kill them on arrival. For their part, some Dayaks have never before seen a white face.
-
-
Excellent insight into a little known operation
- By LindaA on 05-07-2021
-
The Pentagon's Brain
- An Uncensored History of DARPA, America's Top-Secret Military Research Agency
- By: Annie Jacobsen
- Narrated by: Annie Jacobsen
- Length: 18 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Discover the definitive history of DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, in this Pulitzer Prize finalist from the author of the New York Times best seller Area 51. No one has ever written the history of the Defense Department's most secret, most powerful, and most controversial military science R&D agency. In the first-ever history about the organization, New York Times best-selling author Annie Jacobsen draws on inside sources, exclusive interviews, private documents, and declassified memos to paint a picture of DARPA, or "the Pentagon's brain".
-
-
Scary Stuff.
- By Anonymous User on 17-07-2019
-
The Anarchy
- The Relentless Rise of the East India Company
- By: William Dalrymple
- Narrated by: Sid Sagar
- Length: 15 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Anarchy tells the remarkable story of how one of the world’s most magnificent empires disintegrated and came to be replaced by a dangerously unregulated private company, based thousands of miles overseas in one small office, five windows wide, and answerable only to its distant shareholders. In his most ambitious and riveting audiobook to date, William Dalrymple tells the story of the East India Company as it has never been told before, unfolding a timely cautionary tale of the first global corporate power.
-
-
Directionless and difficult to follow.
- By Howling Fantods on 09-12-2019
-
Breaker Morant
- By: Peter FitzSimons
- Narrated by: Cameron Goodall
- Length: 23 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Most Australians have heard of the Boer War of 1899 to 1902 and of Harry 'Breaker' Morant, a figure who rivals Ned Kelly as an archetypal Australian folk hero. Born in England and emigrating to Queensland in 1883 in his early 20s, Morant was a charming but reckless man who established a reputation as a rider, polo player and writer. He submitted ballads to The Bulletin that were published under the name 'The Breaker' and counted Banjo Paterson as a friend.
-
-
Not bad for an old fella
- By Geoff Alford on 31-03-2021
-
Red Zone
- China's Challenge and Australia's Future
- By: Peter Hartcher
- Narrated by: Peter Hartcher
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this incisive audiobook, Peter Hartcher reveals how decades of economic dependence left Australia open to the strategic ambitions of the most successful authoritarian regime in modern history. He shows how ideology, paranoia and Xi Jinping’s personal story have reshaped China and shines new light on Beijing’s overt and covert campaign for influence - over trade and defence, media and politics.
-
-
Very entertaining
- By alvin on 06-06-2023
-
1066: The Year That Changed Everything
- By: Jennifer Paxton, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Jennifer Paxton
- Length: 3 hrs
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With this exciting and historically rich six-lecture course, experience for yourself the drama of this dynamic year in medieval history, centered on the landmark Norman Conquest. Taking you from the shores of Scandinavia and France to the battlefields of the English countryside, these lectures will plunge you into a world of fierce Viking warriors, powerful noble families, politically charged marriages, tense succession crises, epic military invasions, and much more.
-
-
extremely interesting
- By Anonymous User on 30-09-2021
-
Semut
- The Untold Story of a Secret Australian Operation in WWII Borneo
- By: Christine Helliwell
- Narrated by: Dorje Swallow, Christine Helliwell
- Length: 13 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
March 1945. A handful of very young Allied operatives are parachuted into the remote jungled heart of the Japanese-occupied island of Borneo, east of Singapore, there to recruit the island's Indigenous Dayak peoples to fight the Japanese. Yet most speak next to no Borneo languages and know little about Dayaks, other than that they were once headhunters who might kill them on arrival. For their part, some Dayaks have never before seen a white face.
-
-
Excellent insight into a little known operation
- By LindaA on 05-07-2021
-
The Pentagon's Brain
- An Uncensored History of DARPA, America's Top-Secret Military Research Agency
- By: Annie Jacobsen
- Narrated by: Annie Jacobsen
- Length: 18 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Discover the definitive history of DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, in this Pulitzer Prize finalist from the author of the New York Times best seller Area 51. No one has ever written the history of the Defense Department's most secret, most powerful, and most controversial military science R&D agency. In the first-ever history about the organization, New York Times best-selling author Annie Jacobsen draws on inside sources, exclusive interviews, private documents, and declassified memos to paint a picture of DARPA, or "the Pentagon's brain".
-
-
Scary Stuff.
- By Anonymous User on 17-07-2019
-
The Anarchy
- The Relentless Rise of the East India Company
- By: William Dalrymple
- Narrated by: Sid Sagar
- Length: 15 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Anarchy tells the remarkable story of how one of the world’s most magnificent empires disintegrated and came to be replaced by a dangerously unregulated private company, based thousands of miles overseas in one small office, five windows wide, and answerable only to its distant shareholders. In his most ambitious and riveting audiobook to date, William Dalrymple tells the story of the East India Company as it has never been told before, unfolding a timely cautionary tale of the first global corporate power.
-
-
Directionless and difficult to follow.
- By Howling Fantods on 09-12-2019
-
Breaker Morant
- By: Peter FitzSimons
- Narrated by: Cameron Goodall
- Length: 23 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Most Australians have heard of the Boer War of 1899 to 1902 and of Harry 'Breaker' Morant, a figure who rivals Ned Kelly as an archetypal Australian folk hero. Born in England and emigrating to Queensland in 1883 in his early 20s, Morant was a charming but reckless man who established a reputation as a rider, polo player and writer. He submitted ballads to The Bulletin that were published under the name 'The Breaker' and counted Banjo Paterson as a friend.
-
-
Not bad for an old fella
- By Geoff Alford on 31-03-2021
-
Red Zone
- China's Challenge and Australia's Future
- By: Peter Hartcher
- Narrated by: Peter Hartcher
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this incisive audiobook, Peter Hartcher reveals how decades of economic dependence left Australia open to the strategic ambitions of the most successful authoritarian regime in modern history. He shows how ideology, paranoia and Xi Jinping’s personal story have reshaped China and shines new light on Beijing’s overt and covert campaign for influence - over trade and defence, media and politics.
-
-
Very entertaining
- By alvin on 06-06-2023
-
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
- By: Jack Weatherford
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis, Jack Weatherford
- Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Mongol army led by Genghis Khan subjugated more lands and people in 25 years than the Romans did in 400. In nearly every country the Mongols conquered, they brought an unprecedented rise in cultural communication, expanded trade, and a blossoming of civilization.
-
-
Surprisingly good
- By Amazon Customer on 25-09-2017
-
Convict-Era Port Arthur
- Misery of the Deepest Dye
- By: David W. Cameron
- Narrated by: Ant Neate
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Detailing the development of the prison and its outlying stations, including its dreaded coal mines and providing an account of the changing views to convict rehabilitation, Convict-era Port Arthur focuses in on a number of individuals, telling the story through their eyes. Charles O'Hara Booth, a significant commandant of Port Arthur; Mark Jeffrey, a convict who became the grave digger on the Island of the Dead and William Thompson, who arrived just as the new probation system started and who was forced to work in the treacherous coal mines.
-
-
Well Researched, Average Narration.
- By Liss and Pen on 28-06-2022
-
The Big Picture
- On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself
- By: Sean Carroll
- Narrated by: Sean Carroll
- Length: 17 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Already internationally acclaimed for his elegant, lucid writing on the most challenging notions in modern physics, Sean Carroll is emerging as one of the greatest humanist thinkers of his generation as he brings his extraordinary intellect to bear not only on the Higgs boson and extra dimensions but now also on our deepest personal questions. Where are we? Who are we? Are our emotions, our beliefs, and our hopes and dreams ultimately meaningless out there in the void?
-
-
Sean's done it again 😁
- By Kindle Customer on 07-07-2020
-
Operation Paperclip
- The Secret Intelligence Program that Brought Nazi Scientists to America
- By: Annie Jacobsen
- Narrated by: Annie Jacobsen
- Length: 19 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the chaos following World War II, the US government faced many difficult decisions, including what to do with the Third Reich's scientific minds. These were the brains behind the Nazis' once-indomitable war machine. So began Operation Paperclip, a decades-long, covert project to bring Hitler's scientists and their families to the United States. Many of these men were accused of war crimes, and others had stood trial at Nuremberg; one was convicted of mass murder and slavery.
-
-
Great book overall
- By Mr Peter Brennan on 19-06-2019
-
A Thousand Brains
- A New Theory of Intelligence
- By: Jeff Hawkins, Richard Dawkins - foreword
- Narrated by: Jamie Renell, Richard Dawkins
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For all of neuroscience's advances, we've made little progress on its biggest question: How do simple cells in the brain create intelligence? Jeff Hawkins and his team discovered that the brain uses map-like structures to build a model of the world - not just one model, but hundreds of thousands of models of everything we know. This discovery allows Hawkins to answer important questions about how we perceive the world, why we have a sense of self, and the origin of high-level thought.
-
-
Immensely exciting
- By Kaleb Peters on 14-03-2021
-
The Penguin History of New Zealand
- By: Michael King
- Narrated by: Rosemary Ronald
- Length: 17 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
New Zealand was the last country in the world to be discovered and settled by humankind. It was also the first to introduce full democracy. Between those events, and in the century that followed, the movements and conflicts of human history have been played out more intensively and more rapidly in New Zealand than anywhere else on Earth.
-
-
a good introduction
- By Anonymous User on 17-03-2023
-
The History of the Ancient World
- From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome
- By: Susan Wise Bauer
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 26 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the first volume in a bold new series that tells the stories of all peoples, connecting historical events from Europe to the Middle East to the far coast of China, while still giving weight to the characteristics of each country. Susan Wise Bauer provides both sweeping scope and vivid attention to the individual lives that give flesh to abstract assertions about human history. This narrative history employs the methods of "history from beneath" - literature, epic traditions, private letters, and accounts - to connect kings and leaders with the lives of those they ruled.
-
-
Absorbing, never-dull narration of our history
- By PAS on 18-03-2019
-
The Winds of War
- By: Herman Wouk
- Narrated by: Kevin Pariseau
- Length: 45 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Herman Wouk's sweeping epic of World War II stands as the crowning achievement of one of America's most celebrated storytellers. Like no other books about the war, Wouk's spellbinding narrative captures the tide of global events - and all the drama, romance, heroism, and tragedy of World War II - as it immerses us in the lives of a single American family drawn into the very center of the war's maelstrom.
-
-
Beautifully read
- By Maureen Burns on 16-01-2023
-
A Few Right Thinking Men
- The Rowland Sinclair Mysteries, Book 1
- By: Sulari Gentill
- Narrated by: Rupert Degas
- Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rowland Sinclair is an artist and a gentleman. In Australia's 1930s, the Sinclair name is respectable and influential, yet Rowland has a talent for scandal. He relies on the Sinclair fortune to indulge his artistic passions and friends: a poet, a painter and a brazen sculptress. Mounting tensions fuelled by the Great Depression take Australia to the brink of revolution, but Rowland Sinclair is indifferent to the politics...until a brutal murder exposes an extraordinary and treasonous conspiracy.
-
-
A great book and a great narrator
- By KK on 17-05-2019
-
Secret and Special
- By: Will Davies
- Narrated by: Steve Shanahan
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Soon after the declaration of war on Japan, a secret military reconnaissance unit was established, based on the British Special Operations Executive (known as SOE) and called the Inter-allied Services Department. The unit was tasked with the role to "obtain and report information of the enemy...weaken the enemy by sabotage and destruction of morale and to lend aid and assistance to local efforts to the same end in enemy occupied territories."
-
-
Tuff buggers
- By tlcdc on 20-01-2024
-
A Short History of Ireland Part 1
- By: Dr Jonathan Bardon
- Narrated by: Frances Tomelty
- Length: 22 hrs and 51 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the wake of its 30th birthday celebrations in 2006, BBC Radio Ulster marked the beginning of a new broadcasting era by embarking on the station's most ambitious project to date: a recounting of the history of Ireland.
-
-
Awesome book read by many narrators
- By Stevo on 27-06-2017
-
The Gates of Europe
- A History of Ukraine
- By: Serhii Plokhy
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 15 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ukraine is currently embroiled in a tense fight with Russia to preserve its territorial integrity and political independence. But today's conflict is only the latest in a long history of battles over Ukraine's territory and its existence as a sovereign nation. As the award-winning historian Serhii Plokhy argues in The Gates of Europe, we must examine Ukraine's past in order to understand its present and future.
-
-
A fast moving and well-informed history.
- By William Holm on 26-03-2024
Publisher's Summary
Brought to you by Penguin.
The number one New York Times best seller.
In 1918, the world faced the deadliest pandemic in human history. What can the story of the so-called Spanish Flu teach us about the fight against present day crises and how to prepare for future outbreaks?
At the height of WWI, history's most lethal influenza virus erupted in an army camp in Kansas, moved east with American troops, then exploded, killing as many as 100 million people worldwide. It killed more people in 24 months than AIDS killed in 24 years, more in a year than the Black Death killed in a century. But this was not the Middle Ages, and 1918 marked the first collision of science and epidemic disease.
Magisterial in its breadth of perspective and depth of research, The Great Influenza is ultimately a tale of triumph amid tragedy, which provides us with a precise and sobering model as we confront the aftermath of Covid-19 and future pandemics looming on the horizon.
More from the same
Narrator
What listeners say about The Great Influenza
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 10-03-2024
thrilling read
Fascinating read post COVID. Still highly relevant in pulling apart the mechanisms of viral spread and the consequences of a variety of government responses. A little heavy on the male perspective, but given the date of publication, not unusual
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Michellington
- 19-03-2022
SOBERING
Now that the next great pandemic is here I am certainly glad that, for the most part, we seem to have learnt at least some lessons from 1918. That flu was definitely more scary than Covid however, despite the fact that we are yet to have the third wave ( although at the time of writing this I think it is exploding in China). This is an absolute must read on so many levels. The pure joy of history, the fascination of how far we have come in medical practice and sophistication during the 20th century (and yet how far we still have to go) and as a potential warning of the very many mistakes made during that previous pandemic. It is also an excellent read for anyone stupid enough to be an anti-vaxxer in this day and age and yet clever enough to be saved from their own stupidity. The story of how vaccines work due to their early development is a fascinating listen. The tragedy of the times was certainly underplayed during my lifetime, it's almost as if it has been fated to be expunged from history. The actual horror of those years cannot be stated too strongly. History will repeat itself and we need to remember how to deal with it.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Henry Tilney
- 20-07-2022
An Amazing Story Well Read
I really enjoyed this interesting book which has so much to say to us about our present pandemic. Although written before the present Coverd 19 pandemic, the cast of heroes and villains are familiar to us. The text itself is occasionally overstated and breathless; every scientist seems to be the most distinguished in his field, every laboratory at the top of its form, every crisis unpredictable and devastating. This is a minor qualification, however , and the overall effect is very positive. The writer makes a few concessions to non-scientific readers but this is a positive, I’m sure. Be prepared to learn a great deal more about viruses and research than you ever thought you wanted to know.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Margaret
- 10-02-2022
This knowledge is available yet we are unprepared
This book is brilliant and very thorough. With all this known in 2004 how can the governments of the world be so un-prepared for this covid-19 pandemic. It is also scary to think about how the USA transformed into an authoritarian regime as no-one could speak truth without being accused of being a traitor to the war effort. Again there are so many parallels to our covid-19 pandemic where an authoritarian regime withheld information. So sad we cannot learn from our past mistakes
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Woolfe
- 24-04-2023
Great Telling of the Influenza and So much more
A book to listen to a number of times as so much information. Narration also excellent.
A deadly event that took the young during and after WW1. American medicine was still in its infancy but grew incredibly quickly producing brilliant minds and virus detectives, some who gave their lives trying to understand disease.
Highly recommended listen, especially after Covid 19.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Peggy
- 06-03-2022
Important message to learn from the past
History repeats itself and we must learn from it. Extensive research done by the author. Maybe a book rather to read than to listen to. Although the narrator is an award winning actor for my ears over the top and hard to listen to for this topic.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 15-11-2022
Brilliant
Big read! Superb from start to finish...feel i ought to be in a lecture hall for this. Interesting that in 1918-1919 a couple of the measures used to try and reduce the spread (masks and distancing) were initially frowned upon or criticised by bureaucrats...sounds familiar.
The narrative and narrator make this a top shelf book - not just historical text but a medical lesson for many around the world!
Highly recommended
Why so cheap?
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Loretta.
- 24-04-2022
The Great Influenza by John M.Barry
Well we are up to Covid 19 people died and W.H.O. covered up for china . but it is scary Thank you John M. Barry & Thank you Scott Brick for reading to me 💜💜
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 13-10-2020
Potent truth's
I have been enlightened. Not only does the listener receive a dose of knowledge but a stirring story with acknowledgement of the forgotten
men and women who committed lifetime to the advancement of science. Top shelf.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 30-04-2022
should be a movie
Brilliant read. can see history repeating everyone should know what is in this book.
There are so many storylines that could create entertaining and massively informative movies. The script writers of Netflix 'Don't Look Up' should have a field day with this. I feel enlightened.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!