The book provides the most up-to-date tally of the pandemic's impact, including the vast mortality, as well as questioning the apparent origins of the pandemic. A 'total' history, this book ranges from the spread of the 1918-1919 pandemic, to the basic biology of influenza, and how epidemics and pandemics are possible, to consider the demographic, social, economic and political impacts of such a massive pandemic, including the cultural dimensions of naming, blame, metaphors, memory, the media, art and literature. An inter-disciplinary study, it stretches from history and geography through to medicine in order to convey the full magnitude of the first global medical 'disaster' of the twentieth century, and looks ahead to possible pandemics of the future.