Jaime Breitnauer certainly could not have known, when he wrote The Spanish Flu Epidemic & Its Influence on History to mark the 100th anniversary of the calamitous event, that another global pandemic was about the rear its head.

But the book, besides being historically informative, is somewhat prophetic. As he writes in the penultimate chapter:

...There are lots of good reasons to be interested in Spanish flu now, a hundred years on from the pandemic; to honour the dead, to analyse the medical response, to measure the impact of the virus on the health of the population through the relatively new discipline of epigenetics ... but perhaps the most pressing reason for us to remember the outbreaks from a virology, epidemiology, sociology and historical point of view, is because of the high possibility it could happen again.

The book is hard to put down. Breitnauer puts a human face on the Spanish flu by recounting personal stories of the people affected -- not just famous historical figures like Woodrow Wilson and Mohandas Gandhi, but also soldiers, doctors, workers and children, the common folk who suffered its effects even more strongly -- even as he describes the relentless spread of the disease and its devastating impact on the world. It's true that the virus contributed significantly to the end of World War I, but it's startling to realize how it also fostered the conditions that caused World War II.

It's also fascinating to watch the global response to the disease. In many nations, it led directly to more accessible and affordable healthcare -- while, disturbingly, in the United States there was denial and fear, but healthcare remained out of reach (to this day) for its citizens as many leaders refused to impose basic restrictions to curtail the spread of the disease.

Prophetic indeed.

This book is valuable as a detailed look back at a terrible time in history, when a virulent flu spread all over the world, infecting a third of its people and killing many -- reports vary, from 50 million to 100 million. Perhaps it's not too late to learn the harsh lessons the Spanish flu can impart.