num_pages: 320
description: One hundred years ago in September 1918 three things came to Boston: war plague and the World Series. This is the unimaginable story of that late summer month in which a division of Massachusetts militia volunteers led the first unified American fighting force into battle in France turning the tide of World War I. Meanwhile the worlds deadliest pandemicthe Spanish Fluerupted in Boston and its suburbs bringing death on a terrifying scale first to military facilities and then to the civilian population. At precisely the same time in a baseball season cut short on the homefront and amidst the surrounding ravages of death a young pitcher named Babe Ruth rallied the sports most dominant team the Boston Red Sox to a World Series victorythe last World Series victory the Sox would see for 86 years. In September 1918: War Plague and the World Series the riveting intertwined stories of this remarkable month introduce readers to a richly diverse cast of characters: David Putnam a Boston teenager and Americas World War I Flying Ace; a transcendent Babe Ruth and his teammates battling greedy owners and a hostile public; entire families from all social strata devastated by sudden and horrifying influenza death; unknown political functionary Calvin Coolidge thrust into managing the countrys first great public health crisis by an absentee governor; and New Englands soldiers enduring trench warfare and poisonous gas to drive back German forces. At the same time other stories were also unfolding: Cambridge high school football star Charlie Crowley a college freshman teamed up with stars Curly Lambeau and George Gipp under a first-time coach named Knute Rockne; Boston suffrage leader Maud Wood Park was fighting for womens right to vote even as they flexed their developing political muscle; poet E.E. Cummings an Army private found himself stationed at the center of a biological storm; and Massachusetts Senator Henry Cabot Lodge maneuvered as the constant rival of a sitting wartime president. In the tradition of Erick Larsen's bestselling Devil in the White City September 1918 is a haunting three-dimensional recreation of a moment in history almost too cinematic to be real.
language: None
title: September 1918: War, Plague, and the World Series
publisher: Regnery History