{"id":561,"date":"2014-03-27T15:31:44","date_gmt":"2014-03-27T22:31:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onlineacademiccommunity-preprod.uvic.ca\/spanishflu\/?page_id=561"},"modified":"2018-11-14T21:32:03","modified_gmt":"2018-11-14T21:32:03","slug":"a8","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca\/spanishflu\/worstpandemic\/a8\/","title":{"rendered":"Why has the Spanish \u2019flu been virtually ignored by historians?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In recent years historians of a variety of stripes have turned their attention to the Spanish Influenza pandemic: Betty O\u2019Keefe and Ian Macdonald have charted the work of Dr. Fred Underhill, Vancouver\u2019s first full-time medical officer of health and a public-health pioneer;[1]<\/a> using Winnipeg as a case study, Esyllt Wynne Jones has examined the \u201cinterrelationships between epidemic disease and working-class, gender, labour, and ethnic history in Canada”;[2]<\/a> Kirsty Duncan, a medical geographer, in writing about the \u201cKiller Virus\u201d looks at both the urgent need \u2013 for future pandemics \u2013 to understand the 1918 virus, and the \u201cdark side\u201d of the politics of medical research.[3]<\/a> Howard Phillips and David Killingray, and Niall Johnson have examined the pandemic from a social history perspective.[4]<\/a> All of these were published in the twenty-first century.<\/p>\n

These historical studies have appeared since 2003, the year in which Phillips published \u201cThe Re-appearing Shadow of 1918: Trends in the Historiography of the 1918-19 Influenza Pandemic\u201d in which he traced the way in which the pandemic had been \u201ctreated (or ignored) over the last 86 years\u201d.[5]<\/a> The author traces four phases. In the years immediately after 1918 the disease itself was the focus of attention resulting in a number of \u201cone-dimensional\u201d studies attempting to understand what it was and how to prevent its returning.\u201d[6]<\/a> In the 1960s the Spanish flu became source of high drama with the publication of such sensational titles as Invasion by Virus: Can It Happen Again?<\/em>[7]<\/a>\u00a0 By the mid 1970s a wider range of subjects for academic enquiry had become acceptable but, Phillips argues, there was a tendency to \u201cfocus on one particular feature of the pandemic\u201d.[8]<\/a>\u00a0 Finally, the Spanish flu, or more precisely the virus that caused the pandemic, has been the stuff of \u201cscientific saga\u201d as scientists have raced to find the exact nature of the virus.[9]<\/a><\/p>\n

\u21a9<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

1<\/a>. Betty O\u2019Keefe and Ian Macdonald. Dr. Fred and the Spanish Lady: Fighting the Killer Flu.<\/em> Surrey, BC: Heritage House, 2004.<\/sup><\/p>\n

2<\/a>. Jones, Esyllt Wynne. Influenza 1918 : disease, death and struggle in Winnipeg. <\/i>Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007.<\/sup><\/p>\n

3<\/a>. Kirsty Duncan. Hunting the 1918 flu : One Scientist\u2019s Search For a Killer Virus<\/em>. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006.<\/sup><\/p>\n

4<\/a>. Howard Phillips and David Killingray, eds. The Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918-19: new perspectives<\/em>. London; New York: Routledge, 2003. Niall Johnson. Britain and the 1918-19 Influenza Pandemic: A Dark Epilogue<\/em>. London: Routledge, 2006.<\/sup><\/p>\n

5<\/a>. Howard Phillips, \u201cThe Re-Appearing Shadow of 1918: Trends in the Historiography of the 1918\u201319 Influenza Pandemic\u201d, Canadian Bulletin of Medical History<\/em>, Vol. 21:1 (2004), 121\u2013134. http:\/\/www.cbmh.ca.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca\/index.php\/cbmh\/issue\/view\/24<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

6<\/a>. Phillips. \u201cThe Re-Appearing …”. pp. 124, 125.<\/sup><\/p>\n

7<\/a>. Phillips. \u201cThe Re-Appearing …”. p. 125.<\/sup><\/p>\n

8<\/a>. Phillips. \u201cThe Re-Appearing …”. p. 131.<\/sup><\/p>\n

9<\/a>. Phillips. \u201cThe Re-Appearing …”. p. 132.<\/sup><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In recent years historians of a variety of stripes have turned their attention to the Spanish Influenza pandemic: Betty O\u2019Keefe and Ian Macdonald have charted the work of Dr. Fred Underhill, Vancouver\u2019s first full-time medical officer of health and a public-health pioneer;[1] using Winnipeg as a case study, Esyllt Wynne Jones has examined the \u201cinterrelationships … <\/p>\n

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