Spanish influenza epidemic of 1918 was truly a world-shaking event. The numbers of dead are estimated to be somewhere between 50 and 100 million people, and it is estimated that the numbers of those who were infected and survived may have reached as high as five to ten times the number of dead. Almost one in three human beings alive in 1918 would be infected by the virus. But in particular, the epidemic had a number of longer lasting effects on the history of America, which it is worth examining in closer detail.

From a scientific standpoint, the Spanish influenza was nothing remarkable: it followed the standard path of an influenza virus, in making the leap from an animal host population into infecting humans. The best contemporary efforts to reconstruct the disease's origin suspect that it either leapt directly from birds to humans, or else the avian flu transmitted to...
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