Summary
The 1918 Influenza Pandemic killed 50 million people, far surpassing the 16 million lives claimed by World War I. The deadly virus attacked one-fifth of the world’s population and killed more people than any other illness in recorded history yet receives short shrift in curriculum about the Great War.
In this inquiry-based session, educators analyze a variety of primary sources to view the impact and legacy of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic through a geographic lens. The session offers insights into the geopolitics behind the pandemic’s notorious misnomer as the “Spanish Flu,” recent evidence pointing to the influenza’s origins, and how the pandemic’s transmission pathways were directly exacerbated by WWI global troop movements.
Educators will leave this session with a classroom-ready lesson (slide deck, activity handout, and annotated resource list) that will enable them to: 1) discover how places and regions commonly associated with the 1918 Influenza Pandemic are often erroneous, 2) deepen their understanding of the historical context and global impact of the pandemic, and 3) explain how the geography behind WWI contributed to conditions that catalyzed the global spread of the deadly pandemic.
Session Focus
Secondary/High School | Geography for Life | World History
Conference Room
Lacy
Meet the Presenter
Jeannine Kuropatkin
