History Matters: 1918 influenza pandemic more deadly than Great War

Red River Radio | By Gary Joiner, Ph.D.

Published December 1, 2015 at 2:45 AM CST

Flu shot promotional signage is everywhere these days -- reminders on the doors of big box stores and flashed across drugstore digital signs. Commentator Gary Joiner says the 1918 influenza outbreak was one of the deadliest disasters in human history. Estimates are it wiped out between 50 and 100 million people worldwide.

History Matters is made possible in part by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities and Louisiana Cultural Vistas Magazine.

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Gary Joiner, Ph.D.

Gary Joiner is a cartographer and an associate professor of history at LSU in Shreveport. He is the author or editor of 12 books including “Shiloh and the Western Campaign of 1862,” “One Damn Blunder From Beginning to End: The Red River Campaign in 1864,” “Through the Howling Wilderness: The Red River Campaign and Union Failure in 1864,” “Red River Steamboats,” and “Mr. Lincoln's Brown Water Navy: Mississippi Squadron.”

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