pandemic

A Whitmer-DeSantis Showdown Would Put Two Visions of Public Health on the Ballot

by Andrew Wehrman

History suggests that Whitmer's approach to public responsibility for pandemic control works better than DeSantis's individualistic framework for controlling disease. Which one might win votes is another question. 

How America's Two Pandemics Merged

by Tom Engelhardt

In pandemics past, disease was the single contagion threatening society; today there is also a pandemic of political nihilism. 

Free Rapid At-Home COVID Testing can Make Pandemic Life Easier

by David Perry

"Imagine if once a week, each student, teacher and staff member at your local school took a rapid test, with positive results meaning quick quarantines, isolation and more robust testing to identify and lock down infections before they spread wildly."

Fauci Donates Model to Smithsonian’s COVID-19 Collection

Dr. Anthony Fauci's model of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has been a prop in numerous informational sessions since the beginning of the pandemic. Now, the plastic germ will reside in the Smithsonian's collections. 

Writing Histories of Witchcraft in a Pandemic

by Richard Tomzcak

A course on witch trials, run remotely due to the pandemic, offered a chance to push students to examine new sources, write for the public, and consider how historical subjects acted in a climate of fear and suspicion not entirely different from our own.

Penn State Professor Studying Stories of Spanish Flu Survivors

An accidental archival discovery led John Eicher to examine testimonials of European survivors of the 1918 influenza pandemic; the subsequent COVID pandemic made his developing research suddenly relevant to the news. 

The Year We Lost

Historians consider whether the disruptions and cancellations of 2020 are a singular conjuncture of bad news or if the year has just highlighted normal patterns of life – deferral of dreams, economic privation, and uncertainty – that the less-privileged have always lived with. 

Are We Living at the "Hinge of History"?

Journalist Richard Fisher examines the argument that the present--this moment--is the most important juncture in human history because human capacity to affect the planet outstrips human wisdom to direct that capacity.

Florence Revives Medieval Plague-Era ‘Wine Windows’ for Contactless Service

In Florence, the need for bars and restaurants to serve food and drinks in a socially distanced manner has seen a medieval architectural oddity revived.

When Plague Is Not a Metaphor

by Hunter Gardner

It's not always a blessing when current events make a researcher's specialty suddenly and urgently relevant. 

Past Pandemics have Reshaped Society. Will Coronavirus do the Same?

Jeffrey Brown speaks to two historians, Frank Snowden of Yale University and Nancy Bristow of the University of Puget Sound, about how previous pandemics have shaped societies.

How Epidemics And Pandemics Have Changed History

This podcast features historians Jo Hays, Frank Snowden, and Elizabeth Fenn in a discussion of the role of infectious disease in history.

She Posed as a Nurse During the 1918 Flu Pandemic and Went on a Crime Spree

Julia Lyons preyed on the sick and dying in Chicago.

Why Are There Almost No Memorials to the Flu of 1918?

Historians have accounted for how the influenza pandemic unfolded across the US and the world, but have been less successful accounting for why the disease seems to have been forgotten.

From Black Death to Fatal Flu, Past Pandemics Show Why People on the Margins Suffer Most

Evidence from bioanthropology and history suggests that late medieval plagues (and other pandemics) are not levelling forces; they often reinforce the divisions in society.

Las Vegas, US Coronavirus Closures Mirror 1918 Pandemic

The pandemic sparked shutdowns, warnings and pushback around the U.S. that are eerily similar to the fallout from the coronavirus outbreak in Las Vegas and other cities more than 100 years later.

New York Fed Paper Finds Pandemic a Century Ago Fueled Nazi Rise

As far-right political movements gain in the U.S. and abroad, a paper by an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York argues that the influenza pandemic of 1918-1920 fueled the rise of Nazism in Germany.

UNC Historian Says NC Reopened Too Soon During 1918 Pandemic. Don’t Let That History Repeat.

UNC history professor James Leloudis has studied how the global 1918 influenza pandemic tore through North Carolina.

The 1918 Flu Pandemic Killed Millions. So Why Does Its Cultural Memory Feel So Faint?

by Rebecca Onion

According to scholar Elizabeth Outka, the tragedy haunts modernist literature between the lines.

Letters From The 1918 Pandemic (Podcast)

In this podcast, medical historian Dr. Howard Markel shares lessons to be learned from the 1918 flu outbreak, and podcast host shares 102-year-old letters from her aunt's family.