Book ID: CBB001420164

The Last Plague: Spanish Influenza and the Politics of Public Health in Canada (2013)

unapi

Humphries, Mark Osborne (Author)


University of Toronto Press


Publication Date: 2013
Physical Details: xii + 323 pp.; ill.; index; bibl.
Language: English

The `Spanish' influenza of 1918 was the deadliest pandemic in history, killing as many as 50 million people worldwide. Canadian federal public health officials tried to prevent the disease from entering the country by implementing a maritime quarantine, as had been their standard practice since the cholera epidemics of 1832. But the 1918 flu was a different type of disease. In spite of the best efforts of both federal and local officials, up to fifty thousand Canadians died. In The Last Plague, Mark Osborne Humphries examines how federal epidemic disease management strategies developed before the First World War, arguing that the deadliest epidemic in Canadian history ultimately challenged traditional ideas about disease and public health governance. Using federal, provincial, and municipal archival sources, newspapers, and newly discovered military records -- as well as original epidemiological studies -- Humphries' sweeping national study situates the flu within a larger social, political, and military context for the first time. His provocative conclusion is that the 1918 flu crisis had important long-term consequences at the national level, ushering in the `modern' era of public health in Canada.

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Reviewed By

Review Victoria Lee (2015) Review of "Influenza: A Century of Science and Public Health Response". Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences (pp. 122-125). unapi

Review Beiner, Guy (2014) Review of "The Last Plague: Spanish Influenza and the Politics of Public Health in Canada". Bulletin of the History of Medicine (pp. 208-209). unapi

Review Jenkins, Jane (2014) Review of "The Last Plague: Spanish Influenza and the Politics of Public Health in Canada". Canadian Bulletin of Medical History/Bulletin Canadienne d'Histoire de la Medecine (pp. 216-219). unapi

Review Moore, Kirsten (2014) Review of "The Last Plague: Spanish Influenza and the Politics of Public Health in Canada". Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences (pp. 680-682). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001420164/

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Authors & Contributors
Seyed Amir Hossein Golshani
Babak Daneshfard
Fabio Montella
Mohammad Ebrahim Zohalinezhad
Pezzoni, Barbara
Seyyed Alireza Golshani
Concepts
Public health
Epidemics
Disease and diseases
Influenza
Medicine and government
Medicine
Time Periods
20th century, early
19th century
20th century, late
20th century
Places
United States
England
Canada
Iran
Great Britain
Toronto (Ontario)
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