American Pandemic: The Lost Worlds of the 1918 Influenza Epidemic

by Nancy K. Bristow

Overview

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 the United States.

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199811342
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	04/30/2012
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Nancy K. Bristow is Professor of History at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington. She is the author of Making Men Moral: Social Engineering during the Great War. Bristow is the great-granddaughter of two of the pandemic's fatalities.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Preface
1. "Influenza has apparently become domesticated with us": Influenza, Medicine and the Public, 1890-1918
2. "The whole world seems up-side-down": Patients, Families and Communities in the Epidemic
3. "Let our experience be of value to other communities": Public Health Experts and the Public
4. "The experience was one I shall never forget": Doctors, Nurses and the Challenges of the Epidemic
5. "The terrible and wonderful experience": Forgetting and Remembering in the Aftermath
Epilogue: The Costs of Public Amnesia
Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

The memories of the worst pandemic ever are all but lost. In a richly researched work that gives sobering context and voice to a flu that killed 675,000 Americans and 50 million worldwide in 1918–1919, University of Puget Sound history professor Bristow dispels the “costly amnesia” that followed the devastation. She notes how scientists were overconfident of their ability to control the flu, buoyed by the discovery of microbes responsible for a stunning list of deadly diseases. Bristow also describes the harrowing symptoms of the virulent flu and relates the heartbreaking stories of individuals raked by the disease, including the high proportion of young adults (usually the very young and old are most at risk) whose lungs filled like those “of the drowned.” And though poor and rich alike died, Bristow finds how differently the public judged “deserving” and “undeserving” victims. She also writes of the daunting public health task of stanching the flu’s spread—from mandated school closures to the wearing of face masks in public and the public’s frustration with, and resistance to, them. This enlightening history lifts the curtain on a remarkable period of destruction and endurance—and reminds us that those who forget history are condemned to relive it. Photos.(May)

Publishers Weekly

"Now among the best of the post-Second World War publications on the great pandemic of the First World War is American Pandemic. Among her book's virtues is its voluminous bibliography stretching for pages and pages which ranks as essential for all students of the subject." —Journal of the History of Medicine

"Building on Alfred Crosby's ground-breaking study, as well as an incredible amount of original research, this work on the 1918-1920 influenza pandemic offers a personal, professional, and official account of how Americans came to grips with la grippe, while also reflecting on how the nation's collective memory has been shaped by ignoring this tragedy. A rewarding read and highly recommended." —Historian

"[An] excellent social and cultural history of the outbreak. Bristow's work is thoroughly researched. Each chapter draws on a significant number of government records, medical journals, and newspaper articles of the time as well as letters, notes, and diary entries. The result is another fine addition to the recent scholarship of this important event in American history." —Journal of American History

"This readable and compelling account explains the role of race, gender and class, promotion of physical fitness and public education, and America's public health strategy during the influenza epidemics in 1918, 1919, 1920, and 1922. Bristow's work distinguishes itself with her emphasis on influenza epidemics beyond 1918-1919, the roles of physicians and nurses, the importance of public health nursing, and the personal revelation that she lost great-grandparents due to influenza." —Doody's Book Reviews

"[A]n intimate account of the individual and private sufferings of millions of Americans. Based on solid, comprehensive research, the volume is readable and vivid in language and example...[T]he author breathes life into stories of death...An impressive and important book for students, historians, and lay readers. Highly recommended." —CHOICE

"Now among the best of the post-Second World War publications on the great pandemic of the First World War" - Alfred Crosby, Journal of the History of Medicine

"Bristow has written a thoroughly researched and readable book documenting how different groups of Americans experienced and then remembered the influenza epidemic of 1918. Replete with large amounts of new information, this book is a major contribution to the historiography of both the flu and epidemic diseases more broadly."—Barron H. Lerner, author of The Breast Cancer Wars

"A gifted story-teller, Bristow shows how the 1918 influenza pandemic affected Americans of all walks of life. American Pandemic is a masterful work of social and medical history that reminds why this dramatic episode matters to public health and the national imagination."—Alexandra Minna Stern, University of Michigan

"Well written, engaging......Recommended especially for academic readers and specialists" - Library Journal

"A richly detailed picture of American society as it experienced an extraordinary trauma -one that shook a newly-established confidence in the efficacy of medicine and the responsiveness of civil society. Doctors, nurses, the friends and families of the sick all play a part in this carefully and imaginatively researched and lucidly written account of America's last great epidemic."—Charles Rosenberg, Harvard University

"An excellent social and cultural history of the outbreak. Bristow expertly delves into the tragedy and seeks to reconcile the 'public amnesia' of the nation with the private remembering of individuals." - Journal of American History
and their families, including her own

From the Publisher

Reviewer: Elizabeth Connor, MLS, DM/AHIP(The Citadel)
Description: This readable and compelling account explains the role of race, gender and class, promotion of physical fitness and public education, and America's public health strategy during the influenza epidemics in 1918, 1919, 1920, and 1922. Historian Bristow details how this pandemic challenged the sense of American identity.
Purpose: The intention of this book was to examine the economic and societal impact of various influenza outbreaks in the United States, as reflected by the medical literature, and to provide compelling glimpses of loss and recovery related to influenza. The lack of preparation and organization by early twentieth-century medical professionals will educate some readers.
Audience: Health practitioners and historians alike will appreciate this work, especially those who are interested in infectious diseases, public health, and nursing.
Features: The work is organized into five chapters plus an introduction and conclusion. More than 50 pages of end notes elucidate points made in each chapter. Excellent period photographs enhance the work. The book also includes a two-page list that explains various abbreviations, an adequate six-page index, and a splendid 20-page selected bibliography.
Assessment: Quite a number of recent titles deal with the same subject, including Envisioning Disease, Gender, and War: Women's Narratives of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic, Fisher (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012); Flu: A Social History of Influenza, Quinn (New Holland Publishers, 2008); The Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919, Kent (Bedford/St. Martin's); America's Forgotten Pandemic: The Influenza of 1918, 2nd edition, Crosby (Cambridge University Press, 2003); and The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History, Barry (Viking Adult, 2004). Bristow's work distinguishes itself with her emphasis on influenza epidemics beyond 1918-1919, the roles of physicians and nurses, the importance of public health nursing, and the personal revelation that she lost great-grandparents due to influenza.

Doody's Review Service

Bristow (History/Univ. of Puget Sound; Making Men Moral: Social Engineering During the Great War, 1996) unpacks the complex cultural, social and scientific effects of the 1918 influenza epidemic and reveals the American voices that fill the gap of a suppressed national memory. In less than two years, influenza killed more than 50 million people worldwide, shocking existing medical infrastructures and destabilizing the trust that citizens had in science. Physicians were at a loss to prescribe effective treatments; racial and gender divides grew as misunderstandings about the spread of disease exacerbated existing stereotypes; and fear of contagion threatened to collapse the kind of community support that had helped the nation endure past hardships. Simultaneously, the rise of public health care employed the rhetoric of opportunity and optimism, further destabilizing social boundaries as the death rate climbed. A combination of media emphasis on looking toward the future and a public call for increased funding for new scientific research assisted in whitewashing the deep sense of loss and despair that afflicted most Americans as they dealt with the aftermath of the pandemic. Bristow, whose great-grandparents succumbed to influenza in 1920, writes with depth and feeling. By researching dozens of primary sources, she reveals the human circumstances and personal stories behind the history of this tragic era. It's a much-needed addendum to pandemic literature and an important perspective to understand as new and ever-evolving flu strains hover over our collective understanding of disease. Well-researched and insightful.

Kirkus Reviews