Background Information on the 1918 Flu Pandemic

More than 100 years before the Covid-19 Pandemic, another sickness changed world (and Utah) history: the 1918 Flu Epidemic. In this lesson, you will explore sources from the 1918 Pandemic to compare it to the Covid-19 Pandemic. Look through the timeline below for some background information!

Note:

You may have heard this pandemic called the Spanish Flu before. This is because at the time of the pandemic, most Americans thought the sickness started in Spain. However, scientists today still do not know exactly where the pandemic started. The misconception came from the news published about the flu. Countries heavily involved in World War I did not share stories about the flu very much; they wanted to keep morale up. However, Spain was neutral in the war, and so the Spanish press covered the spread of the flu more than any other major European country. Since people in other countries only saw in-depth coverage of the pandemic from Spanish newspapers, they started to assume the flu started in Spain, and the nickname was born. Not everyone agreed on this; Spain actually thought the flu came from France! Today, scientists still aren't completely sure where the flu started. So, while the term Spanish Flu is still used in some of the primary sources in this lesson, we will call the sickness the 1918 Flu Pandemic.

Timeline credit: Maggie Allen, with some minor changes.

This lesson can be adapted to fulfill either a Utah History Core Standard or a US History II Core Standard. Find the resources for both classes below.

7th Grade:

UT Standard 3.2: Students will use primary sources and/or oral histories to analyze the impact of a national/global event such as the Spanish flu epidemic

11th Grade:

U.S. II Standard 3.4: Students will explain the causes for U.S. involvement in World War I and the effects of the war on the home front, such as migration, trade, sedition act, shortages, voluntary rationing, and the Spanish flu.