The Spanish Flu Epidemic and Its Influence on History

The Spanish Flu Epidemic and Its Influence on History

by Jaime Breitnauer
The Spanish Flu Epidemic and Its Influence on History

The Spanish Flu Epidemic and Its Influence on History

by Jaime Breitnauer

eBook

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Overview

A look at the 1918 influenza pandemic from its outbreak to its effects on the global population and its legacy.

On the second Monday of March, 1918, the world changed forever. What seemed like a harmless cold morphed into a global pandemic that would wipe out as many as a hundred-million people—ten times as many as the Great War. German troops faltered, lending the allies the winning advantage, and India turned its sights to independence while South Africa turned to God. In Western Samoa, a quarter of the population died; in some parts of Alaska, whole villages were wiped out. Civil unrest sparked by influenza shaped nations and heralded a new era of public health where people were no longer blamed for contracting disease. Using real case histories, we take a journey through the world in 1918, and look at the impact of Spanish flu on populations from America to France and the Arctic, and at the scientific legacy this deadly virus has left behind.

“Breitnauer puts the whole thing into perspective with a fascinating account of the

origin and extent of the outbreak, at a time when people were returning from the conflict expecting a brave new world and instead confronting one of the deadliest epidemics ever to hit mankind.” —Books Monthly (UK)

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781526745187
Publisher: Pen & Sword Books Limited
Publication date: 04/01/2021
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 160
Sales rank: 625,087
File size: 7 MB

About the Author

J. S. Breitnauer is a British born writer and editor who divides her time between the UK and New Zealand. A graduate in History and Sociology, and holder of an MA in Culture, Class and Power in Europe from 1850, both from the University of Warwick, Breitnauer has a particular interest in twentieth century history and the effects of disease and war on society. Breitnauer has worked as a journalist and editor since 2003, contributing to a wide variety of newspapers, magazines and journals in the UK, New Zealand and the UAE, as well as contributing chapters to two Lonely Planet guides and parenting title Is it Bedtime Yet?. She has also worked for the Anne Frank Trust UK and The Holocaust Centre of New Zealand. In her writing, Breitnauer likes to focus on individual stories that add a personal dynamic to historical fact, to step into the shoes of those who were there, and experience a moment of their lives.

Table of Contents

Author's preface vii

Prologue: The month before war viii

Part 1 The Second Monday in March: Origin Theories and the Trail Left By Disease

Chapter 1 Circling Patient Zero 2

Chapter 2 Three Waves of Death 14

Part 2 Europe, America and the Alliances of War: The Effect of the Pandemic on the Countries in Conflict

Chapter 3 'In flew Enza': How the European Allies were affected by flu 26

Chapter 4 The Naples Soldier: Flu and class divisions in the neutral territories 38

Chapter 5 School's Out in Vienna: The pandemic behind enemy lines 48

Chapter 6 The Edge of War: How flu unfolded in the Americas 56

Part 3 Movement, Trade and the Victims of Colonisation: Exposure to the Virus Beyond Europe

Chapter 7 Under the Desert Sun: Influenza in Africa and the Middle East 68

Chapter 8 The Strange One: The epidemic in colonial India 79

Chapter 9 Closed For Business: Influenza in the South Pacific 88

Chapter 10 Closing the Loop: Outbreak and immunity in South East Asia 98

Part 4 Secrets in the Snow: What Have We Learned in 100 Years?

Chapter 11 Peace In the Time of Influenza: The impact of the pandemic on the peace process and medicine from 1919 106

Epilogue Northern Exposure: What the bodies in the snow tell us about the next pandemic 117

About the author 123

Notes 124

Bibliography 128

Index 129

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