John M. Barry is an American historian and writer. He is also a public health professor at Tulane University. Throughout his career he has written several best-selling and award-winning history books, including 1997’s Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1928 and How It Changed America. Barry has also written articles and editorials for several newspapers, and has appeared on television news programs as an expert on both floods and public health crises such as the swine flu pandemic of 2009 and the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020.

In addition to his writings, Barry has advised private sector and government officials on water-related disasters and preparing for another influenza pandemic. He served on a committee of scientists and historians put together by the Obama administration. For his efforts in helping New Orleans recover from Hurricane Katrina, he was presented with an honorary degree by Tulane University and was named to the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority (SLFPA). Barry is, thus, more than a historian and writer. He is someone who uses his historical knowledge and research to inform and help the present and future.

His goal in writing The Great Influenza was to explore how American society reacted to the challenges of the influenza pandemic and to see what lessons might be drawn from those reactions.