The re-appearing shadow of 1918: trends in the historiography of the 1918-19 influenza pandemic.
This article traces the ways in which the subject of the "Spanish" Influenza pandemic of 1918-19, the worst short-term pandemic of modern times, has been treated (or ignored) by historians over the last 86 years. In doing so , it identifies four distinct surges of interest in the topic, each producing a different conception of this pandemic as history: as epidemiology, as high drama, as social science and ecology, and as scientific saga. It seeks to explain these differing conceptions as part of a wider phenomenon, viz., how an event can be neglected, discovered, made, and re-made as history.
Philips
Howard
H
Department of Historical Studies, University of Cape Town, South Africa.
D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D006663:Historiography; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D014857:Warfare