HistoryExtra
type: channel
link: https://www.historyextra.com
description: Home of Britain’s bestselling history magazine and award-winning podcast
date: 2025-02-14T14:20:33.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: Spanish flu: the virus that changed the world
items: "Far too little, too late": what happened when Spanish Flu hit Britain?
items: Why was there a backlash against face masks during the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918?
items: Why was the 1918-19 pandemic that killed 50 million people known as 'Spanish Flu'?
items: Coronavirus: what might we learn from pandemics in the past?
items: Coronavirus: a historical perspective
items: Books interview with Paul Morland: “Even the Spanish flu pandemic wasn’t enough to stop population growth”
items: The Spanish Flu pandemic

Spanish flu: the virus that changed the world
type: item
date: 2021-03-02T13:00:38.000Z
subject: 20th Century
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Pandemics
description: In spring 1918 a disease began to sweep around the planet – a lethal virus that infected a third of the world's population and left upwards of 50 million dead. Laura Spinney explores the devastating impact of the Spanish flu pandemic and how it compares to the Coronavirus crisis
encoded: The Spanish flu pandemic of 1918–20 infected a third of the global population and left at least 50 million people dead – a greater number, possibly, than the Second World War. Explore the dramatic effects of the outbreak here, including the ways in which the world struggled to come to terms with the disease – medically, socially and politically… How many people died from Spanish Flu? Why was it called 'Spanish Flu'? How did Spanish Flu spread? And who did it affect? Political aftermaths of Spanish Flu How does Spanish Flu compare to Coronavirus? Where did Spanish flu originate? One of the few certainties we have about the Spanish Flu Pandemic is that it didn’t start in Spain. We actually don’t know where it did start – but we know it didn’t start in Spain. The Spanish felt, and to a very great degree were, stigmatised by this. There is also no way of being certain where Spanish Flu originated, although the trenches of the First World War, where poor sanitation and disease was rife, are an often-cited contender. The filthy, rat-infested conditions undoubtedly affected the soldiers’ immune systems, making them more vulnerable to illness. It is thought the first cases were in military forts in the United States before spreading at an alarming rate to Europe. But yet the pandemic was called ‘Spanish Flu’ – again, a result of the war. Why was Spanish Flu called Spanish flu? Wartime censorship exaggerated the affects of the virus in Spain. While Britain, France, Germany and the United States censored and restricted early reports, papers in Spain – as a neutral country – were free to convey all the horrid details of the pandemic. This made it look much worse there, so the unfortunate name spread with the disease around the world. Monday 4 March 1918: the day Spanish Flu strikes the world Written by Dominic Sandbrook When Private Albert Gitchell awoke on Monday 4 March 1918, he felt awful. A company cook at Fort Riley, Kansas, Gitchell was supposed to be serving breakfast t…

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"Far too little, too late": what happened when Spanish Flu hit Britain?
type: item
date: 2021-03-02T12:00:31.000Z
subject: 20th Century
subject: First World War
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Death
subject: Pandemics
description: A century ago, a devastating pandemic killed countless millions worldwide. But how did Britain cope when Spanish Flu reached its shores in 1918? Robert Hume says it was a tragic case of far too little, too late...
encoded: How was Britain affected by the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918? Robert Hume considers the key questions: How did Spanish flu arrive in Britain? How did people protect themselves against Spanish flu? How did Britain officially respond to Spanish Flu? How did the British media respond to Spanish Flu? How many people died from Spanish flu in Britain? Spanish flu in Britain: an introduction “Soon after the war ended, there was a strange kind of flu,” recorded John Pears Jackson, who farmed near Keswick, and died in 2005, aged 98. “Many thousands of people, in England alone, died, including a lot of men and women in Cumberland, some of whom I knew. With none of the drugs and antibiotics we have today, doctors were powerless, and strong men and women were dead in the course of a few days… People drank whisky… and dosed themselves with all kinds of medicines. One farmer I knew swore he cured himself with paraffin oil.” Margaret Pitt, then a pupil at Milton Mount College in Gravesend, recalled being offered something milder to drink: “The school was warned [of] the coming epidemic, so they tried to get us all home early before the Easter holidays. Telegrams were sent to our parents… Our trunks were packed and sent off. Then we all came down to the main hall ready for our journey, in coats, hats and gloves, and our hand luggage. The nurse and her assistant were there with thermometers to see if we were developing the virus. I think about half of us were sent back to bed, some were very upset as they were anxious to go home. I was one of those who had to go to bed. We were given plenty of drink… milk.” Why was Spanish Flu called Spanish flu? The British Medical Journal referred to the sickness – characterised by shivering, headache, sore throat and fever – as ‘Spanish flu’ because it was first recorded in Spain. Offended by the slander, Spaniards named the illness the ‘Naples soldier’. The German army called it ‘Blitzkatarrh’, and British troops referred to it as ‘Flanders grip…

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Why was there a backlash against face masks during the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918?
type: item
date: 2020-07-24T08:13:30.000Z
subject: 20th Century
subject: Membership
subject: Period
description: At the height of the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918–9, many Americans refused to wear face masks designed to reduce the spread of the illness. But why? Professor E Thomas Ewing explains…
encoded: The Spanish Flu was a lethal virus in 1918–9 that is estimated to have infected a third of the world's population and left upwards of 50 million dead. Like today, as governments around the world try to contain the spread of COVID-19, American citizens were asked to wear face masks in order to reduce the spread of the illness. But, as Professor E Thomas Ewing explains, many Americans refused to cover their faces. Here he explains the reasons why, and asks what lessons can be learned… In early December 1918, two women were fined for violating the mask ordinance in Ogden, Utah. Rhoda Williams, a department store clerk, pleaded guilty “to the non-wearing of a mask while attending on customers”. Williams had asthma, so wearing a mask was “a miserable experience”, according to her physician. The judge expressed “human consideration” for her plight but fined her $10. Mrs Reynolds, a bakery employee, also pleaded guilty, but objected that these “rules are framed to hit those who have to work for their living the hardest”. Determining that Reynolds had “not willfully, but carelessly” forgotten the mask order, the judge fined her $5. Why was the 1918-19 pandemic that killed 50 million people known as ‘Spanish Flu’? These two cases from 1918 should resonate with citizens all over the world in the summer of 2020, some of whom are struggling to comply with mask orders, recommendations, and regulations in response to COVID-19. Ogden’s “Influenza Regulations”, implemented on 26 November 1918 during the Spanish Flu pandemic, anticipated similar requirements: “All persons attending upon patients suffering from influenza and barbers, dentists, clerks, elevator operators, and others of similar occupations, and persons coming in close contact with the public, shall wear masks.” The Ogden Standard, like newspapers across the United States, published guidance on making masks early in the pandemic: “Take a piece of gauze, eighteen by twenty-four inches, fold it four times evenly, attach f…

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Why was the 1918-19 pandemic that killed 50 million people known as 'Spanish Flu'?
type: item
date: 2020-03-19T10:00:21.000Z
subject: 20th Century
subject: First World War
subject: Period
subject: Pandemics
description: The Spanish Flu pandemic killed an estimated 50 million people over three killer waves that spread throughout 1918-19, and infected a third of the world's population. But the deadly virus did not originate in Spain, so why is it called Spanish Flu? Plus, how should we talk about the new virus circulating the globe known as Covid-19?
encoded: Why is Spanish Flu called Spanish Flu? The H1N1 influenza virus is one of the deadliest disasters in history. It killed more people than the First World War – and in less time. But there are many misconceptions about the pandemic. Firstly, 50 million is a conservative estimate for the number of dead – the figure could be many times that number. There is also no way of being certain where Spanish Flu originated, although the trenches of World War I, where poor sanitation and disease was rife, are an often-cited contender. The filthy, rat-infested conditions undoubtedly affected the soldiers’ immune systems, making them more vulnerable to illness. Spanish flu: how the deadly virus changed the world Epidemiology: the history of disease and epidemics (via BBC Science Focus) "Far too little, too late": what happened when Spanish Flu hit Britain a century ago? It is thought the first cases were in military forts in the United States before spreading at an alarming rate to Europe. But yet the pandemic was called ‘Spanish Flu’ – again, a result of the war. Spain was not hit especially badly compared to other countries but wartime censorship exaggerated the affects of the virus there. While Britain, France, Germany and the United States censored and restricted early reports, papers in Spain – as a neutral country – were free to convey all the horrid details of the pandemic. This made it look much worse there, so the unfortunate name spread with the disease around the world. This answer was taken from BBC History Revealed magazine How should we name new diseases? We recently interviewed Laura Spinney about pandemics for the HistoryExtra podcast. Here's what she had to say about the origins of the Spanish Flu name – and why we should be careful about how we talk about the new coronavirus known as Covid-19... Laura Spinney: "One of the few certainties we have about the Spanish Flu Pandemic is that it didn’t start in Spain. We actually don’t know where it did start – but we know…

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Coronavirus: what might we learn from pandemics in the past?
type: item
date: 2020-03-16T15:57:32.000Z
subject: 20th Century
subject: 21st Century
subject: General Modern
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Pandemics
subject: Podcast transcripts
description: As Covid-19 dominates the news, read our interview with Laura Spinney (author of Pale Rider, an account of the 1918 influenza pandemic known as Spanish flu) from the HistoryExtra podcast. In the interview, Spinney draws historical parallels with other pandemics in history and asks what we might learn from disease outbreaks in the past
encoded: Note: this is an unedited transcript of our recent podcast Coronavirus – a historical perspective Matt Elton, editor of BBC World Histories Magazine: Obviously, Coronavirus is something that’s hitting a lot of headlines at the moment. Why does it strike such a chord, why are we so afraid of pandemics? Laura Spinney: Well, I think it’s something very primitive in us really. I mean, we’ve had to deal with epidemics of infectious disease, plagues if you like, to use a more kind of ancient and Biblical term, since we settled down in kind of semi-permanent settlements, since we started farming, that is, about 10, 12,000 years ago. And, you know, these diseases that kind of adapted to big groups of densely-living people, we call them the crowd diseases, and they kind of evolved in parallel with us as we adopted those new, more sedentary lifestyles. So it’s been a kind of arms race for a very long time, they know us very well and unfortunately because they’re small and they reproduce much faster, they tend to be a step ahead. They can just mutate and adapt and, you know, they’re just wherever we don’t want them to be before we can do anything about it and we’re seeing that again now. In some ways, there are many aspects, I think, of a pandemic which don’t change over time. There are many that do but there are many that don’t and those are the ones that speak to our, obviously speak to our most ancient fears. ME: And, of course, it’s natural for humans to look back at past examples of a similar thing to see if there’s any parallels or any lessons that could be drawn. Do you think there are particular pandemics from history that are most useful to look at in terms of parallels or is it just not a useful exercise generally? LS: No, I do think it’s a useful exercise, I just don’t know why we immediately rush to pick the worst possible example. Given that the Spanish Flu, or the not Spanish Flu, we should really call it the 1918 Flu, was pretty much forgotten for most of the la…

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Coronavirus: a historical perspective
type: item
date: 2020-03-16T15:55:33.000Z
subject: 20th Century
subject: 21st Century
subject: General Modern
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Pandemics
description: As COVID-19 dominates the news, Laura Spinney asks what we might learn from pandemics in the past
encoded: As COVID-19 dominates the news, Laura Spinney draws historical parallels with other pandemics in history and asks what we might learn from disease outbreaks in the past Read our transcript of the podcast interview here Why was the 1918-19 pandemic known as Spanish Flu?

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Books interview with Paul Morland: “Even the Spanish flu pandemic wasn’t enough to stop population growth”
type: item
date: 2019-01-03T06:00:30.000Z
subject: General Modern
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Pandemics
description: Paul Morland talks to Ellie Cawthorne about his new book on how demographic change has shaped global history, and is set to shape our future too
encoded: This article was first published in the January 2019 edition of BBC History Magazine Q: What exactly is ‘demography’, and why do you think it is an enlightening way to look at history? A: In some ways demography is quite simple, and that’s part of its appeal. It’s essentially about three things: the people entering the world, the people leaving it and the people moving across it – births, deaths and migration. So why does it have such an impact? Because the number of people in any given area, and the age and ethnic composition of that population, affect an area’s politics, economics, society and culture. In fact, it’s very hard to think of aspects of life that are not impacted by demography in one way or another. Q: Your book looks at population trends over the last 200 years. What have been the biggest changes in that time? A: Throughout human history there’s always been population growth and decline, but before the 19th century things were rather random. Around 1800, however, a pattern started emerging, which sees death rates falling while fertility rates stay high, meaning that a population grows until eventually the birth rate falls and the population stabilises. Why did this happen? Modernity. When you start to get basic public health measures and education on how to implement them, death rates fall very quickly. This pattern began in Britain, and then spread across Europe and the world. Want to read more articles from our December 2018 issue? Find the full issue here, including: Roman Britain’s final frontier Queen Anne's feuding favourites <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2019/01/1161912-a4e89bc.jpg" width="2451" height="1803" alt="Queen Anne, based on a work by Sir Godfrey Kneller, c1702–10. Anne's reign saw women take centre stage in fierce political debates. (Photo by Bridgeman/National Trust Photographic Library)" title="Queen Anne, based on a work by Sir Godfrey Kneller, c1702–10. Anne's reign saw women take centre sta…

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The Spanish Flu pandemic
type: item
date: 2018-02-12T17:28:48.000Z
subject: 20th Century
subject: First World War
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Pandemics
description: Catharine Arnold explores the story of the influenza outbreak that caused devastation across the globe a century ago
encoded: Catharine Arnold joins us to discuss her new book Pandemic 1918: The Story of the Deadliest Influenza in History, which explores the story of the influenza outbreak that caused devastation across the globe a century ago.

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