Why do you suppose the 1918 A-H1N1 “Spanish Flu” pandemic isn't given more prominence in our school history texts?

I think it’s odd, too. I can only guess that it is overshadowed by World War I.

Ironically, people traveling around the globe for WWI probably caused the pandemic, and the flu killed 5x to 10x more people.

Which history texts? If were talking high school, there is soooo much left out. The Spansih Flu is like 813,542 on the list of what should be included.

@tinyfaery Not sure I agree with your list. There is typically ample discussion of the Black Plague, but on balance, the flu pandemic in 1918 killed more people and altered the outcome of world history (i.e. ended WW1) to a similar extent as the plagues.

You never agree with anything I say. What’s new? Okay 125,321 on the list.

Well, isn’t that pleasant. ~

@shilolo I tend to agree with you. An event such as this has ramifications, economically and sociologically, that have never been properly examined. I can see tinyfaery’s point as well, as a sidebar. Because of our reluctance to teach about the Viet Nam War in schools, for example, there are many Americans today that truly believe that we won that one. This is tragic as it sets us up to believe that limited warfare in a nuclear age can actually be won. It makes it easier for us to get mired in places such as Afghanistan and Iraq. History is important. Ignoring it is a huge mistake.

@Espiritus_Corvus I agree 95% with you, though I would argue that some “limited wars in a nuclear age” have been “won” (i.e. Israel 1967, Israel 1973, USA-Allied forces 1991, NATO in Kosovo 1999, Russia-Georgia 2008).

”[Historian Alfred W. Crosby]‘s latest hypothesis… is that in the fifty years preceding the 1918 flu, the world had been through one of the most profound revolutions ever to change the course of history: the germ theory of disease. ‘Every eighteen years, a new pathogen was identified, and it went on for years,’ Crosby noted. Each discovery drove home the message that science was conquering disease. As the drumbeat of infectious agents continued, people ‘heaved a great sigh of relief. At last infectious disease was not important anymore,’ Crosby concludes.

“Then came the flu epidemic, which made a mockery of the newfound optimism. And when it ended, Crosby posits, perhaps the most comforting reaction was to forget about it, to push it to the back of humanity’s collective consciousness as quickly as possible. To ‘see no evil, hear no evil.’”

from Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus That Caused It, by Gina Kolata, p. 54

@shilolo I should not have written that line so quickly. Limited warfare prosecuted by opposing superpowers by proxy rarely avoids mission creep and therefore the original objectives inevitably morph in order to justify the sustained action as does the definition of victory. This is wasteful in respect to lives and treasury. However, as I am not well versed on the wars you have listed, I cannot competently continue the discussion.

@laureth That is what appears to have happened. Collective denial on a global scale. I find it very difficult to comprehend. If true. this is a very dangerous trait in humans.

More people died of influenza than were killed in Europe in WWI. Between the war and influenza it’s estimated it killed 675,000 people in the US and 40 million world-wide. World War I killed 10 million civilians, and 9 million troops worldwide. Most of the people died of influenza were in their teens to early 30s.

(Google Pandemic Economics Thomas A Garrett. Very interesting paper on this very subject. )

Anyhow to answer the question, I think it’s left out of or passed over in US history texts because it threatens the omnipotency of the the US as a super power. The world was powerless in the grips of a pandemic. That’s contrary to how the US likes to present itself.

Off topic yet still related – my great-great grandfather was a pharmacist in the midwest during the Spanish flu outbreak, ended up contacting the virus and was one of the casualties.

I wonder if part of the reason it isn’t covered has to do with inciting panic.

It should be part of an advanced science class curriculum in 10th or 11th grade. Before SARS and avian flu there was less global awareness. The Hong Kong Flu pandemic of 1968 and 1969 killed an estimated one million people but I think the media didn’t pick up the subject in a way we are seeing now.

My grandfather died in that flu epidemic but to answer the question, there is only so much that can be put into high school curriculum. Many groups from black historian to gay activists insist that their activities should be added to high school courses.

I believe that high school level history should offer a broad over-view. There is only so much that high school students have time to learn, If we tried to accommodate everyone that had a special interest, there would be no time for other subjects.

I remember history, in high school, as the memorization of dates and names, not much else and I thought that all of the humanities were a waste of time. I wanted more physics and math.

I think that high school history should concentrate on the stories in history rather than specific dates. The stories are more likely to whet their interest to look further into the subject rather the dry and boring memorization that was used in my day.

*waves! *

Hi! I have no idea why I didn’t see this question when it was posted.

But, I’ll answer now.

I had the world’s best history teacher for American History (Honours), as well as Western Humanities (an elective)

We actually did an extensive unit on the 1918 flu epidemic. He kind of rolled it in to WWI, because in his eyes it was just as important as what was going on elsewhere in the world – considering it was an American History class and all.