Book ID: CBB001251681

American Pandemic: The Lost Worlds of the 1918 Influenza Epidemic (2012)

unapi

Bristow, Nancy K. (Author)


Oxford University Press


Publication Date: 2012
Physical Details: xiii + 280 pp.; ill.; bibl.; index
Language: English

Between 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

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Reviewed By

Review Fenn, Elizabeth A. (2013) Review of "American Pandemic: The Lost Worlds of the 1918 Influenza Epidemic". American Historical Review (pp. 525-526). unapi

Review Walloch, Karen (2014) Review of "American Pandemic: The Lost Worlds of the 1918 Influenza Epidemic". Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences (pp. 508-510). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001251681/

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Authors & Contributors
Dicke, Tom
Honigsbaum, Mark
Lukáš Novotný
Valérie Tóthová
Věra Hellerová
Alibrandi, Rosamaria
Concepts
Influenza
Pandemics
Public health
Medicine and society
Infectious diseases
Disease and diseases
Time Periods
20th century, early
21st century
19th century
20th century, late
16th century
Places
United States
Canada
India
Istanbul (Turkey)
Bogotá (Colombia)
Sicily
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