Book Club Discussion Questions for The Great Influenza by John M. Barry

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, and our BookBrowse Review of The Great Influenza.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

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.

Questions provided with permission from Litlovers.com: https://www.litlovers.com/reading-guides/non-fiction/great-influenza-barry?start=3

Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Penguin Books. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.