War Fever, Randy Roberts
War Fever, Randy Roberts
List: $27.99 | Sale: $19.59
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War Fever
Boston, Baseball, and America in the Shadow of the Great War

Author: Randy Roberts, Johnny Smith

Narrator: Craig A. Hart

Unabridged: 11 hr

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Basic Books

Published: 03/24/2020

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included

Synopsis

A "marvelous" (Sports Illustrated) portrait of the three men whose lives were forever changed by WWI-era Boston and the Spanish flu: baseball star Babe Ruth, symphony conductor Karl Muck, and Harvard law student Charles Whittlesey. In the fall of 1918, a fever gripped Boston. The streets emptied as paranoia about the deadly Spanish flu spread. Newspapermen and vigilante investigators aggressively sought to discredit anyone who looked or sounded German. And as the war raged on, the enemy seemed to be lurking everywhere: prowling in submarines off the coast of Cape Cod, arriving on passenger ships in the harbor, or disguised as the radicals lecturing workers about the injustice of a sixty-hour workweek. War Fever explores this delirious moment in American history through the stories of three men: Karl Muck, the German conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, accused of being an enemy spy; Charles Whittlesey, a Harvard law graduate who became an unlikely hero in Europe; and the most famous baseball player of all time, Babe Ruth, poised to revolutionize the game he loved. Together, they offer a gripping narrative of America at war and American culture in upheaval. 

About Randy Roberts

Randy Roberts is a distinguished professor of history at Purdue University. An award-winning author, he has written biographies of iconic athletes and celebrities, including Jack Johnson, Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis, Bear Bryant, and John Wayne. He lives in Lafayette, Indiana.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Katie on July 14, 2020

While 1918 was the year the Great War, aka World War 1, ended, it was also the start of the Spanish flu pandemic which killed millions of people worldwide. This book provides a bit of a look into how the city of Boston was hit by the pandemic but primarily provides focus on three men with Boston are......more

Goodreads review by Rick on June 16, 2020

This was very disappointing. I'll start with the fact that it easily could have been 100 pages shorter. Plenty of filler. It is the account of three disparate figures whose lives tangentially touched Boston during the Great War years. Babe Ruth was there after growing up in Baltimore and soon to mov......more

Goodreads review by Alison on April 19, 2020

Gripping story for any sports or war history advocate. All three “characters” tug at your heart strings and the last story will bring you to tears, while still telling the horrific story of the war to end all wars. Great job again by Randy Roberts and Johnny Smith!......more

Goodreads review by Adam on January 10, 2024

The book started out a little slow but once the exposition is done it picks up. I really got a feel for that time in history and what it would’ve been like to live in that era. That part of US history is important and it always gets glossed over in school/media so it’s nice a book of this degree is......more

Goodreads review by Paul on May 07, 2020

The last time I attended a ballgame, actually a high school football game, was in 1957 or 1958. I was in the 8th grade. I snuck into the game along with a friend, not because we wanted to watch the game free, but because we wanted to flirt with the 7th- and 8th-grade girls who would be there. I have......more

Quotes

"A marvelous book."—Sports Illustrated

"[War Fever] arrives just in time to remind us that ours is by no means the first generation to experience the wholesale disruption of our norms and institutions by an 'invisible enemy.' "—Boston Globe

"A remarkable new book."—Jeremy Schaap, ESPN

"In the midst of the curveball that is this crisis, sporty titles are helping satiate those who typically prefer spring training to spring releases. War Fever, a new book by Randy Roberts and Johnny Smith, examines how baseball converged with the country's last terrible pandemic. Among the tidbits revealed: In 1918, Babe Ruth had the so-called Spanish flu twice - so baseball, at least, has been here before."—Washington Post

"An entertaining reminder that American hero worship, media hype, and fierce nationalism haven't changed much in a century."—Kirkus

"A compelling look at a tumultuous moment in U.S. history through the lives of three extraordinary individuals. Fans of 20th-century American culture as well as Boston and World War I history will rejoice."—Library Journal

"Randy Roberts and Johnny Smith didn't set out to write a book about the Spanish-flu pandemic of 1918, but the outbreak looms like the ghost at the banquet over their new book War Fever. A recurring storyline that runs through the book's narrative has a much more urgent feel today as America is in the grips of the worst pandemic since that terrible autumn."—National Review

"Roberts and Smith have a brilliant knack for finding unexplored subjects and bringing them fully to life. This haunting, elegantly written book is the story of Boston -- but really America itself -- set against the background of a raging global war, momentous lifestyle changes, and an influenza epidemic that would kill more people in a shorter time than any event in human history. Told through the eyes of three vibrant characters, War Fever is a sober reminder of the forces that came together in 1918 to confront the Great War and shape the nation's future."—David Oshinsky, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Polio: An American Story

"What a terrific book. With in-depth research and absorbing storytelling, Roberts and Smith bring to life a tumultuous chapter of American history. A Brahmin becomes a reluctant hero. A famous German conductor sits in an internment camp. A darn good pitcher turns out to be the best hitter of baseballs the world ever has seen. This will be the best few stay-at-home nights you'll have in some time."—Leigh Montville, author of The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth

"Carefully researched, full of dramatic moments and keen insights, and written with panache, War Fever is at once an impressive act of historical recovery and a ripping good tale. Weaving together the stories of the nation's greatest military hero, one of its most dastardly villains, and its most celebrated professional athlete, Randy Roberts and Johnny Smith vividly reconstruct the historical forces that reshaped Boston and reconfigured American life during World War I."
—Bruce J. Schulman, Boston University

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