The Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1918–1919: Perspectives From the Iberian Peninsula and the Americas

Abstract

Situating Iberian Peninsula as key point of connection between Europe and Americas, both epidemiologically and discursively, The Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919 sheds new light on what World Health Organization described as the single most devastating infectious disease outbreak ever recorded. The essays in this volume elucidate specific aspects of pandemic that have received minimal attention until now, including social control, gender, class, religion, national identity, and military medicine's reactions to pandemic and relationship with civilian medicine. While World War I, as authors point out, is context for these discussions, experiences of 1918-19 remain persistently relevant to contemporary life, particularly in view of events such as 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic and Ebola outbreak of 2014. Contributors: Catherine Belling, Josep Bernabeu-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 Medical Faculty of Ciudad Real at University of Castilla-La Mancha (Spain). Ryan A. Davis is assistant professor in Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at Illinois State University.