American Pandemic: The Lost Worlds of the 1918 Influenza EpidemicBetween the years 1918 and1920, influenza raged around the globe in the worst pandemic in recorded history, killing at least fifty million people, more than half a million of them Americans. Yet despite the devastation, this catastrophic event seems but a forgotten moment in our nation's past. American Pandemic offers a much-needed corrective to the silence surrounding the influenza outbreak. It sheds light on the social and cultural history of Americans during the pandemic, uncovering both the causes of the nation's public amnesia and the depth of the quiet remembering that endured. Focused on the primary players in this drama--patients and their families, friends, and community, public health experts, and health care professionals--historian Nancy K. Bristow draws on multiple perspectives to highlight the complex interplay between social identity, cultural norms, memory, and the epidemic. Bristow has combed a wealth of primary sources, including letters, diaries, oral histories, memoirs, novels, newspapers, magazines, photographs, government documents, and health care literature. She shows that though the pandemic caused massive disruption in the most basic patterns of American life, influenza did not create long-term social or cultural change, serving instead to reinforce the status quo and the differences and disparities that defined American life. As the crisis waned, the pandemic slipped from the nation's public memory. The helplessness and despair Americans had suffered during the pandemic, Bristow notes, was a story poorly suited to a nation focused on optimism and progress. For countless survivors, though, the trauma never ended, shadowing the remainder of their lives with memories of loss. This book lets us hear these long-silent voices, reclaiming an important chapter in the American past. |
Contents
| 3 | |
Influenza Medicine and the Public 18901918 | 14 |
Patients Families and Communities Confront the Epidemic | 40 |
Public Health Experts the People and Progressivism | 82 |
Doctors Nurses and the Challenges of the Epidemic | 122 |
Forgetting and Remembering in the Aftermath | 155 |
Other editions - View all
American Pandemic: The Lost Worlds of the 1918 Influenza Epidemic Nancy K. Bristow Limited preview - 2012 |
American Pandemic: The Lost Worlds of the 1918 Influenza Epidemic Nancy Bristow Limited preview - 2012 |
American Pandemic: The Lost Worlds of the 1918 Influenza Epidemic Nancy K. Bristow Limited preview - 2012 |
Common terms and phrases
AEQC African American aftermath AJPH allopaths America’s Forgotten Pandemic American Red Cross Archives Army Camp Chemawa Indian School Chicago citizens City city’s crisis Crosby culture cure death December December 28 demic disease Division doctors editorial efforts emergency enza Epidemic Influenza Epidemic of Influenza epidemic’s experiences explained February fever fight File Folder germ theory Grip Grippe health authorities History homeopaths Hospital Ibid illness infection Influ Influenza and Pneumonia Influenza Epidemic Influenza Pandemic instance JAMA 71 January January 25 JAOA Journal Letter lives Medical Association Medicine memory narrative National November October October 11 October 26 osteopaths Papers patients Philadelphia physicians Plague pneumonia practitioners preventive public health leaders Public Health Service Recent Epidemic Record Report response Rupert Blue School September sick social Spanish Flu Spanish Influenza suffered suggested Surgeon tion treatment University of Virginia University Press USAMHI USPHS vaccines virus Visiting Nurse women WWORP York