Sheds new light on what the WHO described as "the single most devastating infectious disease outbreak ever recorded," focusing on social control, gender, class, religion, national identity, and military medicine's reactions to thepandemic.Situating the Iberian Peninsula as the key point of connection between Europe and the Americas, both epidemiologically and discursively, The Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919 sheds new light on what the World Health Organization described as "the single most devastating infectious disease outbreak ever recorded." The essays in this volume elucidate specific aspects of the pandemic that have received minimal attention until now, including social control, gender, class, religion, national identity, and military medicine's reactions to the pandemic and relationship with civilian medicine. While World War I, as the authors point out, is the context for these discussions, the experiences of 1918-19 remain persistently relevant to contemporary life, particularly in view of events such as the 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic and the Ebola outbreak of 2014. Contributors: Catherine Belling, JosepBernabeu-Mestre, Liane Maria Bertucci, Ryan A. Davis, Esteban Domingo, Magda Fahrni, Hernán Feldman, Pilar León-Sanz, Maria Luísa Lima, Maria de Fátima Nunes, Mercedes Pascual Artiaga, María-Isabel Porras-Gallo, Anny Jackeline Torres Silveira, José Manuel Sobral, Paulo Silveira e Sousa, Christiane Maria Cruz de Souza. María-Isabel Porras-Gallo is professor of history of science in the Medical Faculty of Ciudad Real at the University of Castilla-La Mancha (Spain). Ryan A. Davis is assistant professor in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at Illinois State University.

Introduction: Emerging Perspectives of the Spanish Influenza Pandemic 1918-19The Great Evolutionary Potential of Viruses: The 1918 Flu as a Paradigm of Disease EmergenceSpanish Flu in Brazil: Searching for Causes during the Epidemic HorrorRicardo Jorge and the Construction of a Medico-Sanitary Public Discourse: Portugal and International Scientific NetworksAnd to Make Things Worse, the Flu: The Spanish Influenza in a Revolutionary PortugalBetween the Pandemic and World War I: The 1918-19 Influenza Pandemic in the Spanish Army, through the Eyes of the PressThe Reign of the Spanish Flu: Impact and Responses to the 1918 Influenza Pandemic in Minas Gerais, BrazilThe Spanish Flu in Bahia, Brazil: Prophylaxis and Healing PracticesA Collaborative Experience: The Mutual Benefit Societies' Responses to the 1918-19 Influenza Pandemic in Pamplona, SpainA Tale of Two Spains: Narrating the Nation during the 1918-19 Influenza EpidemicThe Spanish Flu in Argentina: An Alarming HostageEpidemic Disease, Local Government, and Social Control: The Example of the City of Alicante, SpainThe Gendered Dimensions of Epidemic Disease: Influenza in Montreal, Canada, 1918-20Remembering and Reconstructing: Fictions of the 1918-19 Influenza PandemicSelected BibliographyList of ContributorsIndex