Citation

Honigsbaum M. Soc. Hist. Med. 2010; 23(2): 299-319.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, Society for the Social History of Medicine, Publisher Oxford University Press)

DOI

10.1093/shm/hkq011

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article examines the impact of the 1889-93 'Russian' influenza on late Victorian society and culture. Using medical officer of health and national and local newspaper reports, and the poetry and memoirs of prominent survivors, I argue that the rapid progress of the influenza across Europe and the morbidity of leading politicians and other members of the British establishment occasioned widespread 'dread' and in some cases panic. This dread of influenza was fuelled by the high mortality rate in northern towns such as Sheffield, as well as by the disease's association with pneumonia, neurasthenia, psychosis and suicide. However, the key factor was the growth of mass circulation newspapers and the way that the influenza drew on fin de sicle cultural anxieties about urbanisation and the increasing speed of modern life. © The Author 2010. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for the Social History of Medicine. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

suicide; psychosis; influenza; dread; fin de sicle