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John M. Barry Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

John M. Barry
johnmbarry.com

John M. Barry

John M. Barry Biography

John M. Barry is a prize-winning and New York Times best-selling author whose books have won more than twenty awards.

In 2005 the National Academies of Science named The Great Influenza, a study of the 1918 pandemic, the year’s outstanding book on science or medicine. In 1998 Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America, won the Francis Parkman Prize of the Society of American Historians for the year’s best book of American history.

Both The Great Influenza and Rising Tide have proven influential in recent years.

Barry was invited by the Bush and Obama administrations to advise on pandemic preparedness and response, and he has advised other federal, state, United Nations, and World Health Organization officials on influenza, water-related disasters, crisis management, and risk communication.

A member of advisory boards at M.I.T’s Center for Engineering Systems Fundamentals and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Barry was also the only non-scientist on a federal government Infectious Disease Board of Experts.

His articles have appeared in such scientific journals as Nature and Journal of Infectious Disease as well as in lay publications ranging from Sports Illustrated to The New York Times, The Washington Post, Fortune, Time, Newsweek, and Esquire. A frequent guest on every broadcast network in the US, he has appeared on such shows as NBC's Meet the Press, ABC's World News, and NPR's All Things Considered, and on such foreign media as the BBC and Al Jazeera.

He has also served as a consultant for Sony Pictures and contributed to award-winning television documentaries.

In addition to serving on advisory boards at Johns Hopkins and MIT, he is on the board of the Society of American Historians, American Heritage Rivers, and the advisory board for the National Mississippi River Museum in Dubuque. Before becoming a writer, Barry coached football at the high school, small college, and major college levels. Currently Distinguished Scholar at the Center for Bioenvironmental Research of Tulane and Xavier Universities, he lives in New Orleans.

His latest book is Roger Williams and The Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and winner of the New England Society Book Award.

From the author's website

John M. Barry's website

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Books by this Author

Books by John M. Barry at BookBrowse
The Great Influenza jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for John M. Barry but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Geraldine Brooks

    Geraldine Brooks

    Australian-born Geraldine Brooks is an author and journalist who grew up in the Western suburbs of Sydney, attending Bethlehem College Ashfield and the University of Sydney. She worked as a reporter for The Sydney Morning ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The Great Influenza

    Try:
    Year of Wonders
    by Geraldine Brooks

  • Carla Buckley

    Carla Buckley

    Carla Buckley was born in Washington, D.C. She has worked as an assistant press secretary for a U.S. senator, an analyst with the Smithsonian Institution, and a technical writer for a defense contractor. She lives in Chapel ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The Great Influenza

    Try:
    The Things That Keep Us Here
    by Carla Buckley

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