REPLAY and REFERENCES: BENZONIA ACADEMY LECTURE SERIES/ JANUARY 2022: “The Great Influenza Pandemic (1918-1920)” Presented by Mike Nagle

BENZONIA ACADEMY LECTURE SERIES

The Great Influenza Pandemic (1918-1920) presented by Michael Nagle

View this Zoom replay on YouTube by clicking on the following web link:

https://youtu.be/H6LWOy4G1dg

Here are Professor Nagle’s references:

• America’s Forgotten Pandemic: The Influenza of 1918, by Alfred W. Crosby
• John Barry, The Great Influenza:  https://www.johnmbarry.com/the_great_influenza__the_story_of_the_deadliest_pandemic_in_history__133171.htm
• The Smithsonian Magazine:  https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/journal-plague-year-180965222/
• The Influenza Epidemic of 1918/archives.gov:  https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/influenza-epidemic/
• Local to Benzie County:
  • http://betsiecurrent.com/index.php/comparing-covid-19-and-the-1918-flu-pandemic/
  • https://www.recordpatriot.com/columns/article/Historical-Society-The-horror-of-the-Spanish-Flu-14316396.php
• An excellent podcast (only about 16 minutes) about the Biden Administration & mandating employers to have employees vaccinated or be tested.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/can-he-do-that/biden-mandates-vaccines-for-millions-can-he-do-that-/
• Below is a link to a primary source; a nurse who worked with flu patients; very powerful.
  • https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/influenza-epidemic/records/volunteer-nurse-letter.pdf

The Great Influenza pandemic, also known as the Spanish Flu, was the deadliest pandemic in recent history. It struck in four deadly waves beginning in 1918. Experts believe it infected one third of the world’s population at that time and led to the deaths of at least 50 million worldwide, including 675,000 in the United States. How and where did it originate? How did health officials respond? How did the population react to mask mandates and school closures? What can we learn from history as we enter the third year of living through another pandemic? Mike Nagle, West Shore Community College Professor of history and political science, will address these and other questions, associated with the Great Influenza and its legacy.

Michael W. Nagle holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in education and Master of Arts degree in history from Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington. He teaches history and political science at West Shore Community College, in Scottville, Michigan, where he also serves as chair of the social sciences division. Nagle is an award-winning teacher and noted speaker covering a range of topics in American history, Michigan history, and student success and retention in the on-line classroom. He is the author of Justus S. Stearns; Michigan Pine King and Kentucky Coal Baron, 1845-1933, published in 2015 by Wayne State University Press. He is currently working on a biography of the Detroit industrialist Eber Brock Ward. When he died in 1875, Ward was the wealthiest man in Michigan and probably throughout all the Midwest. Nagle lives in Ludington, Michigan.