A Cruel Wind: Pandemic Flu in America, 1918–1920 (review)

The 1918–1919 influenza pandemic was the greatest biological disaster in American history and altered the course of world history in numerous ways. Despite these realities this pandemic has widely been ignored by general American history texts. Pettit's and Bailie's significant new work should end this historical oversight. Not only does this book present the most comprehensive technical history of this pandemic, it also details influenza's impact on World War I, the 1919 Paris peace conference, and post-World War I American life.

The authors bring diverse scholarly strengths to this project. The text is based largely on Pettit's doctoral dissertation on the history of the pandemic, 1918–1920. Bailie, a Ph.D. in biochemistry, provides the basic science to explain the scientific portion of the influenza mystery. Throughout the text the authors use an impressive amount of new primary materials, including the papers and diaries of key medical, military, and governmental figures who led the efforts against this pandemic. The authors also rely on newspaper accounts from these years from such diverse newspapers as the New York Times and the North China Herald, to demonstrate the major day-to-day impact of influenza on the American public.

After an initial chapter discussing the basic science of influenza the authors present a chronological discussion, beginning with major influenza outbreaks in forty-six American cities in the spring of 1918. Newly discovered evidence appears to show that the pandemic actually began in China and was brought to North America by the thousands of Chinese being imported to the European war theatre by Great Britain and France. Since influenza was a non-reportable disease in 1918 America, the first significant published reports concerning the looming pandemic came from the military during the summer of 1918.

Pettit and Bailey present detailed coverage of the thirty-one-week influenza pandemic in the United States, fall of 1918 through the winter of 1919. They provide excellent charts presenting case and mortality statistics. They emphasize the impact of influenza in both the European war theatre and on daily life in the United States. The reader can sense the feelings of frustration felt by the medical researchers, public health leaders, and government officials, confronted by an epidemic they did not scientifically understand and were powerless to stop. Cities ran out of coffins and grave diggers. Fear and sickness gripped the nation before the epidemic drastically slowed in November 1918, only to begin again during the first months of 1919. After a tranquil fall of 1919, pandemic influenza returned for twelve weeks, January through March 1920, killing over eleven thousand in Chicago and New York City.

Perhaps this book's greatest strength is examining the short- and long-term impacts on American and world history. Influenza severely crippled the 1919 Paris peace conference, limiting the opportunity to create a just, workable peace. Three American representatives in Paris died of influenza and one of the leaders, Colonel Edward M. House, was confined to his sick bed during most of the meetings. Concern over the potential return of this pandemic led to the creation of a permanent international Red Cross organization shortly after World War I ended.

In the United States, the pandemic had many lasting effects. The life insurance industry, after paying over one hundred million dollars in 1918 influenza claims, regrouped in 1919, taking in eight billion dollars as many Americans first realized their need for financial protection. In general, health shifted from a private to a public matter. Efforts at national public health planning and preparation focused on increasing the number of public health nurses and public health education for young women. Many colleges and universities initiated or expanded physical education and health education course offerings. Congress provided funding for continuing scientific research on influenza. The authors include personal stories of influenza's impact on such noted Americans as the great poet Robert Frost, the...