The real-life experiences of New Yorkers during the COVID-19 outbreak are at the heart of this collection of as-told-to stories. Snyder highlights the actions, big and small, that people took to help the city survive, including medical personnel who collaborated across hospitals to find health-care solutions, and bus drivers who stayed on their routes.(The New Yorker) Snyder made a point that I thought about as this week approached. By 2020, the influenza epidemic of 1918 had been forgotten by many people, but not by historians and epidemiologists.(New York Times) This book is a model for interviews and oral history. But its reference to "state of amnesia" reminds us of how important and difficult it is to recall history, particularly in times of crises, and how easy it is to ignore or downplay the past.(New York Almanack)
