''The Last Town on Earth'' is a 2006 novel by American writer

Thomas Mullen Thomas Mullen (20 June 1896 – 2 January 1966) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician and school teacher. He was born in Roemore, Breaffy, County Mayo, to primary school teacher parents, Thomas and Mary Mullen (née Coggins).Deaths, ''Irish Ind ...

. The novel explores events in the fictional town of Commonwealth,

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

in 1918 during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and the

Spanish flu The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case wa ...

epidemic. The town agrees to quarantine itself from the outside world, hoping to escape the international epidemic of the flu. Phillip Worthy, the adopted son of Charles Worthy, the town founder, brings a lost soldier into the town. While he appears to be healthy, residents begin to suffer the flu, and start to turn against each other. The politics of the

Industrial Workers of the World The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), members of which are commonly termed "Wobblies", is an international labor union that was founded in Chicago in 1905. The origin of the nickname "Wobblies" is uncertain. IWW ideology combines general ...

American Protective League The American Protective League (1917-1919) was an organization of private citizens sponsored by the United States Department of Justice that worked with Federal law enforcement agencies during the World War I era. Its mission to identify suspected ...

, and the

Four Minute Men The Four Minute Men were a group of volunteers authorized by United States President Woodrow Wilson to give four-minute speeches on topics given to them by the Committee on Public Information (CPI). In 1917–1918, over 750,000 speeches were give ...

, as well as the aftermath of the

Everett Massacre The Everett Massacre (also known as Bloody Sunday) was an armed confrontation between local authorities and members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) union, commonly called "Wobblies". It took place in Everett, Washington on Sunday, ...

, play major roles in the novel. According to the author's afterword, he created the fictional community of Commonwealth inspired by his studies of

Gunnison, Colorado Gunnison is a home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Gunnison County, Colorado. The city population was 6,560 at the 2020 United States Census. Gunnison was named in honor of John W. Gunnison, a Un ...

(which imposed a quarantine trying to prevent the flu) and the socialist communes in Washington state of

Equality Colony Equality Colony was a United States socialist colony founded in Skagit County, Washington by a political organization known as the Brotherhood of the Cooperative Commonwealth in 1897. It was meant to serve as a model which would convert the rest o ...

Freeland Freeland may refer to: Places Canada *Freeland, Prince Edward Island United Kingdom *Freeland, Oxfordshire United States *Freeland, Maryland *Freeland, Michigan *Freeland, Ohio *Freeland, Pennsylvania *Freeland, Washington Other uses *Freel ...

, and Home. Mullen also cited

John M. Barry John M. Barry (born 1947) is an American author and historian who has written books on the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, the influenza pandemic of 1918, and the development of the modern form of the ideas of separation of church and state and ...

's 2004 book ''

The Great Influenza ''The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Plague in History'' (originally subtitled ''The Epic Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History'') is a 2004 nonfiction book by John M. Barry that examines the Spanish flu, a 1918-1920 flu pande ...

'' as inspiration. This novel won the James Fenimore Cooper Prize for Best Historical Fiction in 2007. ''

The New York Times Book Review ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...

'' calls it a "remarkable first novel" and praises the novel's "brilliant series of plot twists" and "carefully detailed historical context".

References

2006 novels Novels set during World War I James Fenimore Cooper Prize-winning works Novels set in Washington (state) Industrial Workers of the World in fiction Books about labour 2006 debut novels Spanish flu in popular culture Novels about influenza outbreaks {{2000s-WWI-novel-stub