The Beginning of the End of Something

2019 ◽  
pp. 224-240
Author(s):  
Deniz Ertan

World War I, with its attendant music and noise, was followed immediately by an influenza epidemic (the “Spanish flu”) that was met by a resounding silence. To meet the epidemic, theatres closed and gatherings were prohibited; Western culture itself paused until the danger passed. Realistic portrayals and responses through music were rare (in contrast to the war), but they may be detectable in works by artists as diverse as Charles Tomlinson Griffes and Blind Willie Johnson. The nationalism of the conflict yielded to a new transnationalism, neither peaceful nor stable, described most memorably by Randolph Bourne, himself a victim of the disease.

2019 ◽  
pp. 096777201987609
Author(s):  
Liam McLoughlin

Dr Joseph Dudley ‘Benjy’ Benjafield qualified from University College Hospital Medical School, London in 1912. He joined the Royal Army Medical Corps during World War I and was in charge of the 37th Mobile Bacteriological Laboratory serving with the British Egyptian Expeditionary Force when the Spanish flu struck in late 1918. He observed the features and clinical course of the pandemic and published his findings in the British Medical Journal in 1919. On return to civilian life, he was appointed as Consultant physician to St George’s Hospital, Hyde Park Corner, London where he remained in practice for the rest of his career. He was a respected amateur gentleman racing driver frequently racing at the Brooklands circuit from 1924 after buying a Bentley 3-litre and entering the Le Mans 24 h race seven times between 1925 and 1935, winning in 1927. He was one of an elite club of young men known as The Bentley Boys and went on to become a founding member of the British Racing Drivers Club (BRDC) in 1927. He rejoined the Royal Army Medical Corps during World War II, serving briefly again in Egypt. He died in 1957.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wilson Alves de Paiva

A fictional book with five short stories that address the main pandemics in the world. The first story takes place in Ancient Greece, in 428 BC at the time of the Peloponnesian War. Tavros, the main character flees the plague by traveling to Gaul and discovers a mysterious water spring near the village of the Parisii. In AD 166, when Rome, is devasted by the plague, Marcus Aurelius sends out soldiers to the North. One of them, Lucius, arrives in the region of Lutecia and finds the same fountain that Tavros had been to. The water from this spring gives him strength to escape from the persecution of Christians and Jews. In his old age, Lucius becomes a Church elder and writes letters. One of them was read, many centuries later, by a Franciscan Parisian monk during the Middle Ages, who decides to pilgrimage to Jerusalem but is surprised by the Black Death. Back home, he is saved by the water spring, builds an orphanage and has his life converted into a book - which is red by a young journalist who takes the ship Demerara with his fiancée to Brazil in order to avoid the World War I, the Spanish flu and some Russian spies. The last story is about a Brazilian professor, called Lucius Felipe who, in 2019, travels to Paris to develop his postdoctoral studies. Unfortunately he has to return to Brazil due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But not before having visited Lutetia’s fountain and felt its power and the memories it holds.


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-133
Author(s):  
Robert Doričić ◽  
Toni Buterin ◽  
Igor Eterović ◽  
Amir Muzur

The Spanish flu, one of the worst epidemics in history, appeared in 1918, on the eve of the end of the World War I. The characteristic of the epidemic on the territory of the city of Rijeka has been poorly studied. Certainly, the lack of primary sources, such as hospital registries, have made the understanding of the incidence and the course of the epidemic in the city more difficult. Therefore, the death certificates have emerged as the main primary source. The purpose of this paper is to explore and describe mortality caused by the (Spanish) flu during 1918 and at the beginning of 1919, using the death registers of those who lived in the area of the city center and the surrounding parishes. The results of the Spanish flu mortality research in the area of Rijeka are compared to the Spanish flu specific mortality on the territory of the three parishes situated in the wider area of Rijeka – Brseč, Mošćenice and Lovran. The elucidation of the characteristics of the Spanish flu epidemic and its impact on the quotidian life in the city of Rijeka is possible through the analysis of daily newspapers as well. In this paper, we have explored such articles in the La Bilancia, Rijeka’s newspaper published in Italian.


2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-83
Author(s):  
Seyyed Alireza Golshani ◽  
Mohammad Ebrahim Zohalinezhad ◽  
Mohammad Hossein Taghrir ◽  
Sedigheh Ghasempoor ◽  
Alireza Salehi

The Spanish Flu was one of the disasters in the history of Iran, especially Southern Iran, which led to the death of a significant number of people in Iran. It started on October 29, 1917, and lasted till 1920 – a disaster that we can claim changed the history. In one of the First World War battlefields in southern Iran in 1918, there was nothing left until the end of World War I and when the battle between Iranian warriors (especially people of Dashtestan and Tangestan in Bushehr, Arabs, and people of Bakhtiari in Khuzestan and people of Kazerun and Qashqai in Fars) and British forces had reached its peak. As each second encouraged the triumph for the Iranians, a flu outbreak among Iranian warriors led to many deaths and, as a result, military withdrawal. The flu outbreak in Kazerun, Firoozabad, Farshband, Abadeh, and even in Shiraz changed the end of the war. In this article, we attempt to discuss the role of the Spanish flu outbreak at the end of one of the forefronts of World War I.


Author(s):  
Salini Sethi ◽  
◽  
Sonali Das ◽  
Mousumi Dash ◽  
◽  
...  

Laura Spinney, British science journalist and author of Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World observes that, “The Spanish Flu is remembered personally, not collectively. Not as a historical disaster, but as millions of discreet, private tragedies.” The pandemic of 1918 was not memorialized like World War I which supervened at the same time as the Spanish Flu. It was soon relegated in public memory as the world emerged from the throes of the nightmarish war. Almost a century later, the world finds itself in the grip of yet another pandemic, the COVID-19. Similar situations of patients with multiple complex symptoms, heaving hospitals, shortage of doctors and nurses, scenes of patients left unattended, dealing with the guilt of infecting their family and friends and struggling to survive paints an apocalyptic scenario. This paper tries to explore a parallel among the two pandemics as it witnesses the tragic tale of a survivor of the Spanish Influenza in Katherine Anne Porter’s autobiographical short novel “Pale Horse, Pale Rider.” The private tragedies of physical deterioration, psychological delusions and social stigmatization also suffered by the COVID-19 survivors have been documented and blazoned all over news and social media. The design behind broadcasting these factual accounts are recognition of the reality of the virus (suspected and labelled fake on many occasions), awareness of the symptoms and understanding of the disease. These hopeful and optimistic narratives of the COVID survivors are a faint ray of hope in these bleak times.


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