Fever of War : The Influenza Epidemic in the U.S. Army during World War I / Carol R Byerly.
2005
RC150.4 .B946 2005
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Details
Title
Fever of War : The Influenza Epidemic in the U.S. Army during World War I / Carol R Byerly.
Author
Byerly, Carol R, author.
ISBN
9781479867059
Published
New York, NY : : New York University Press, [2005]
Copyright
©2005
Language
English
Language Note
In English.
Description
1 online resource
Other Standard Identifiers
10.18574/nyu/9781479867059.001.0001 doi
Call Number
RC150.4 .B946 2005
Dewey Decimal Classification
614.5/18/09041
Summary
The influenza epidemic of 1918 killed more people in one year than the Great War killed in four, sickening at least one quarter of the world's population. In Fever of War, Carol R. Byerly uncovers the startling impact of the 1918 influenza epidemic on the American army, its medical officers, and their profession, a story which has long been silenced. Through medical officers' memoirs and diaries, official reports, scientific articles, and other original sources, Byerly tells a grave tale about the limits of modern medicine and warfare.The tragedy begins with overly confident medical officers who, armed with new knowledge and technologies of modern medicine, had an inflated sense of their ability to control disease. The conditions of trench warfare on the Western Front soon outflanked medical knowledge by creating an environment where the influenza virus could mutate to a lethal strain. This new flu virus soon left medical officers' confidence in tatters as thousands of soldiers and trainees died under their care. They also were unable to convince the War Department to reduce the crowding of troops aboard ships and in barracks which were providing ideal environments for the epidemic to thrive. After the war, and given their helplessness to control influenza, many medical officers and military leaders began to downplay the epidemic as a significant event for the U. S. army, in effect erasing this dramatic story from the American historical memory.
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Access limited to authorized users.
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Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
Digital File Characteristics
text file PDF
Source of Description
Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 18. Sep 2023)
Available in Other Form
print 9780814799239
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Table of Contents
Frontmatter
Contents
Figures
Abbreviations
Acknowledgments
Prologue
Introduction
1. Medical Heroes
2. Building a Healthy Army
3. Worst-Case Scenario
4 .Fighting Germs and Germans
5. Postmortem
6. "Except for the Flu . . ."
Conclusion
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index
About the Author
Contents
Figures
Abbreviations
Acknowledgments
Prologue
Introduction
1. Medical Heroes
2. Building a Healthy Army
3. Worst-Case Scenario
4 .Fighting Germs and Germans
5. Postmortem
6. "Except for the Flu . . ."
Conclusion
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index
About the Author