Main description:

Sheds new light on what the WHO described as "the single most devastating infectious disease outbreak ever recorded," focusing on social control, gender, class, religion, national identity, and military medicine's reactions to thepandemic.

Situating the Iberian Peninsula as the key point of connection between Europe and the Americas, both epidemiologically and discursively, The Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919 sheds new light on what the World Health Organization described as "the single most devastating infectious disease outbreak ever recorded." The essays in this volume elucidate specific aspects of the pandemic that have received minimal attention until now, including social control, gender, class, religion, national identity, and military medicine's reactions to the pandemic and relationship with civilian medicine. While World War I, as the authors point out, is the context for these discussions, the experiences of 1918-19 remain persistently relevant to contemporary life, particularly in view of events such as the 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic and the Ebola outbreak of 2014.

Contributors: Catherine Belling, JosepBernabeu-Mestre, Liane Maria Bertucci, Ryan A. Davis, Esteban Domingo, Magda Fahrni, Hernan Feldman, Pilar Leon-Sanz, Maria Luisa Lima, Maria de Fatima Nunes, Mercedes Pascual Artiaga, Maria-Isabel Porras-Gallo, Anny Jackeline Torres Silveira, Jose Manuel Sobral, Paulo Silveira e Sousa, Christiane Maria Cruz de Souza.

Maria-Isabel Porras-Gallo is professor of history of science in the Medical Faculty of Ciudad Real at the University of Castilla-La Mancha (Spain).
Ryan A. Davis is assistant professor in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at Illinois State University.

Contents:

Introduction: Emerging Perspectives of the Spanish Influenza Pandemic 1918-19
The Great Evolutionary Potential of Viruses: The 1918 Flu as a Paradigm of Disease Emergence
Spanish Flu in Brazil: Searching for Causes during the Epidemic Horror
Ricardo Jorge and the Construction of a Medico-Sanitary Public Discourse: Portugal and International Scientific Networks
And to Make Things Worse, the Flu: The Spanish Influenza in a Revolutionary Portugal
Between the Pandemic and World War I: The 1918-19 Influenza Pandemic in the Spanish Army, through the Eyes of the Press
The Reign of the Spanish Flu: Impact and Responses to the 1918 Influenza Pandemic in Minas Gerais, Brazil
The Spanish Flu in Bahia, Brazil: Prophylaxis and Healing Practices
A Collaborative Experience: The Mutual Benefit Societies' Responses to the 1918-19 Influenza Pandemic in Pamplona, Spain
A Tale of Two Spains: Narrating the Nation during the 1918-19 Influenza Epidemic
The Spanish Flu in Argentina: An Alarming Hostage
Epidemic Disease, Local Government, and Social Control: The Example of the City of Alicante, Spain
The Gendered Dimensions of Epidemic Disease: Influenza in Montreal, Canada, 1918-20
Remembering and Reconstructing: Fictions of the 1918-19 Influenza Pandemic
Selected Bibliography
List of Contributors
Index