Cholera in the nineteenth century and HIV/AIDS in the late twentieth century. In recent decades, all of these, along with numerous more local epidemics, have attracted the attention of historians, and our understanding of them - and of epidemics in general - has increased many times over...
For much of the last two centuries professional historians have been extremely sceptical about the importance of epidemics in history. Overlooking cataclysmic natural disasters, they have focused, rather, on political, economic and intellectual processes to explain change over time. Until fairly recently they have been reluctant to attribute lasting significance to such disasters or to depict them as of great moment historically, however large they may have loomed to contemporaries. For instance, writing in 1936, E. P. Cheyney concluded that the effects of the Black Death, ‘like other catastrophic occurrences in history … were less important than the workings of more silent and persistent forces’. 1 Such a stance, believed William McNeill, stemmed from a basic tenet of positivist, scientific historiography:
We all want human experience to make sense and historians cater to this universal demand by emphasizing elements in the past that are calculable, definable, and, often, controllable as well. Epidemic disease, when it did become decisive in peace or in war, ran counter to the effort to make the past intelligible. Historians consequently played such episodes down. 2
In the last quarter-century, however, that assessment has waned to a degree, with the influence of greater emphasis on social, cultural and environmental historical writing. Perhaps, too, the emergence of AIDS has provided an immediate example of the power of a pandemic to alarm and transform societies.
(David Killingray, Howard Phillips; Routledge, 2003)
Ten (10) of the Best Books and Articles on: Flu Epidemicsas selected by Questia librarians
The Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1918-19: New Perspectives » Read Now
by Howard Phillips, David Killingray. 362 pgs.
...The Spanish Influenza pandemic of 1918-19 was the worst pandemic of modern times, claiming over 30 million lives in less than six months. In the hardest hit societies...
Viruses, Plagues and History (Chap. 14 "Influenza Virus, the Plague That May Return") » Read Now
by Michael B. A. Oldstone. 227 pgs.
Pneumococcal Immunizations at Flu Clinics: The Impact of Community-Wide Outreach, in Journal of Community Health » Read Now
by Douglas Shenson, John Quinley, Donna DiMartino, Patricia Stumpf, Michael Caldwell, Tikuang Lee. 10 pgs.
Flu Vaccine Production Gets a Shot in the Arm, in Environmental Health Perspectives » Read Now
by Ernie Hood. 3 pgs.
Influenza Pandemic Preparedness: Legal and Ethical Dimensions, in The Hastings Center Report » Read Now
by Lawrence O. Gostin. 2 pgs.
Clean Living Movements: American Cycles of Health Reform (Chap. 11 "Tuberculosis, Public Health, and Influenza") » Read Now
by Ruth Clifford Engs. 316 pgs.
...Over the past 200 years, a health reform movement has emerged about every 80 years. These "clean living" cycles surged with, or were tangential to, a religious awakening...
Your Health: How the Flu Makes Its Way From Wild Ducks, to Livestock, to You, in National Wildlife » Read Now
by Peter Jaret. 2 pgs.
...including humans, can suffer deadly epidemics. Though we may think of the flu as the cause of a week or two of...United States, and the Hong Kong flu of 1968 killed 34,000...
The Swine Flu Vaccine and Guillain-Barre Syndrome: A Case Study in Relative Risk and Specific Causation, in Law and Contemporary Problems » Read Now
by David A. Freedman, Philip B. Stark. 29 pgs.
...The swine flu vaccine and Guillain-Barre syndrome: a case...epidemiologic evidence suggesting that the swine flu vaccine caused Guillain-Barre syndrome ("GBS...weeks or...
Primary Care of the Older Adult: A Multidisciplinary Approach ("Influenza" begins on p. 182) » Read Now
by Mary M. Burke, Joy A. Laramie. 684 pgs.
Nature, the Most Deadly Bio-Terrorist of All: It May Not Be in the Next 12 Months, but Very Soon, a New and Virulent Strain of Flu Is Likely to Sweep the World. Globalisation Has Made the Spread of Disease All Too Easy, in New Statesman » Read Now
by Robin McKie. 3 pgs.
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