Article ID: CBB957978700

Living With the Flu: Public Health and Civic Life During the Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1918 (2022)

unapi

Most studies of how United States cities responded to the first deadly wave of Spanish influenza focus on the ways public health officials and their allies reacted to the crisis. This study expands our understanding of the pandemic by focusing on how members of the public responded to those efforts to contain the flu. It does so through a close look at social and civil life in a small city in the southern Midwest during the thirty-two days the flu was epidemic there. Shifting the focus in this way brings previously obscured gaps in the public health response into the light. Specifically, this study finds that while compliance in most areas was high there were two places where it was low: activities in support of American involvement in the European War, and participation in social or civic activities. From the first day of the epidemic to the last the society pages of the local newspapers reported a stream of activities that clearly violated emergency measures. Despite the ban on public gatherings, social clubs, fraternal societies, and civic groups all regularly met. The local college football team practiced, and people continued to turn out for weddings, funerals, birthday parties, dinner parties, and extended visits from out-of-town friends and family. With one possible exception, none of the social or civic activities were carried out as protests against health regulations. Instead local newspapers reported these activities as items of social interest.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB957978700/

Similar Citations

Article Elizabeth Schlabach; (2019)
The Influenza Epidemic and Jim Crow Public Health Policies and Practices in Chicago, 1917–1921 (/isis/citation/CBB696683073/)

Book Bristow, Nancy K.; (2012)
American Pandemic: The Lost Worlds of the 1918 Influenza Epidemic (/isis/citation/CBB001251681/)

Article M. Kemal Temel; (2020)
The 1918 “Spanish Flu” Pandemic in the Ottoman Capital, Istanbul (/isis/citation/CBB539750154/)

Book Honigsbaum, Mark; (2014)
A History of the Great Influenza Pandemics: Death, Panic and Hysteria, 1830--1920 (/isis/citation/CBB001550988/)

Article Ospina Diaz, Juan Manuel; Martinez Martin, Abel Fernando; Herran Falla, Oscar Fernando.; (2009)
Impacto de la pandemia de gripa de 1918--1919 sobre el perfil de mortalidad general en Boyacá, Colombia. (/isis/citation/CBB000932945/)

Book Carlo Caduff; (2015)
The Pandemic Perhaps: Dramatic Events in a Public Culture of Danger (/isis/citation/CBB736184954/)

Book Chinmay Tumbe; (2020)
Age Of Pandemics (1817-1920): How They Shaped India and the World (/isis/citation/CBB905101091/)

Article Dicke, Tom; (2015)
Waiting for the Flu: Cognitive Inertia and the Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1918--19 (/isis/citation/CBB001551156/)

Article Mamelund, Svenn-Erik; Sattenspiel, Lisa; Dimka, Jessica; (2013)
Influenza-Associated Mortality during the 1918--1919 Influenza Pandemic in Alaska and Labrador: A Comparison (/isis/citation/CBB001200585/)

Article Kavita Sivaramakrishnan; (2020)
Endemic risks: influenza pandemics, public health, and making self-reliant Indian citizens (/isis/citation/CBB396192326/)

Article Mark Honigsbaum; (2023)
The “Spanish” Flu and the Pandemic Imaginary (/isis/citation/CBB294752241/)

Article Maciel-Lima, Sandra Mara; (2015)
The Impact that the Influenza a (H1N1) Pandemic Had on News Reporting in the State of Paraná, Brazil (/isis/citation/CBB001552725/)

Thesis Bresalier, M C; (cited 2010)
Transforming Flu: Medical Science and the Making of a Virus Disease in London, 1890--1939 (/isis/citation/CBB001567257/)

Article Andrej Tóth; Inka Kratochvílová; Jakub Drábek; Lukáš Novotný; Věra Hellerová; Martin Červený; Valérie Tóthová; (2022)
On the Issue of the Spanish Flu in the First Czechoslovak Republic (/isis/citation/CBB540149674/)

Authors & Contributors
Honigsbaum, Mark
Lukáš Novotný
Valérie Tóthová
Věra Hellerová
Alibrandi, Rosamaria
M. Kemal Temel
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
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment