The Plague Year

America in the Time of Covid

Lawrence Wright

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Hardback

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English

Allen Lane
02 July 2021

History; Social impact of disasters; Illness & addiction: social aspects; Political science & theory; Personal & public health; Infectious & contagious diseases; Bargains

A definitive account of the shocking American response to Covid-19, from the acclaimed author of The Looming Tower

'In the twenty-first century, infectious disease seemed like a nuisance, not like a mortal threat'

Just as Lawrence Wright's The Looming Tower became the defining account of our century's first devastating event, 9/11, so The Plague Year will become the defining account of the second.

The story starts with the initial moments of Covid's appearance in Wuhan and ends with Joseph Biden's inauguration in an America ravaged by well over 400,000 deaths - a mortality already some ten times worse than US combat deaths in the entire Vietnam War.

This is an anguished, furious memorial to a year in which all of America's great strengths - its scientific knowledge, its great civic and intellectual institutions, its spirit of voluntarism and community - were brought low, not by a terrifying new illness alone, but by political incompetence and cynicism on a scale for which there has been no precedent.

With insight, sympathy, clarity and rage, The Plague Year allows the reader to see the unfolding of this great tragedy, talking with individuals on the front line, bringing together many moving and surprising stories and painting a devastating picture of a country literally and fatally misled.

By: Lawrence Wright
Imprint: Allen Lane
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 240mm, Width: 162mm, Spine: 32mm
Weight: 555g
ISBN: 9780241530443
ISBN 10: 024153044X
Pages: 304
Publication Date: 02 July 2021
Audience: General/trade , College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , ELT Advanced , Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Lawrence Wright (Author) LAWRENCE WRIGHT is a staff writer for The New Yorker, a playwright, a screenwriter, and the author of ten books of nonfiction, including The Looming Tower, Going Clear, and God Save Texas, and one previous novel, God's Favorite. His books have received many honors, including a Pulitzer Prize for The Looming Tower. He lives in Austin, Texas.

Reviews for The Plague Year: America in the Time of Covid

In his characteristically rigorous and engrossing style, Wright documents innumerable episodes of ineptitude and malfeasance ... Maddening and sobering - as comprehensive an account of the first year of the pandemic as we've yet seen. * Kirkus *