John M. Barry
American author and historian
John M. Barry is an American author and historian who has written about the 1918 influenza pandemic, the 1927 Mississippi flood and the origins of religious liberty in America.
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American Born 1947 in Providence, United States
About John M. Barry
John M. Barry is an American author and historian. Before writing books he coached football and worked as a Washington journalist. His first book, The Ambition and the Power, looked at the US Congress, and his second, The Transformed Cell, was co-written with Dr. Steven Rosenberg. The Great Influenza, published in 2004, was a New York Times best seller and received the Keck Communications Award in 2005 for science or medicine writing. His earlier book Rising Tide, about the 1927 Mississippi flood, won the 1998 Francis Parkman Prize for American history. Barry has advised officials on influenza preparedness, including in the Bush and Obama administrations. After Hurricane Katrina he joined the boards overseeing levee districts around New Orleans and the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority. He holds a professorship at Tulane University, in its School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. Barry lives in New Orleans.