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Chapter 16
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Great Influenza, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Leadership and Crisis
Truth, Free Press, and Propaganda
Science vs. Nature
Education, Research, and Institutions
Summary
Analysis
On September 7, 1918, 300 sailors from Boston disembarked in Philadelphia. Philadelphia was known for its shipbuilding, which had brought tens of thousands of workers to the city. Housing became scarce, and this led to overcrowding, which was already a problem before the war. This set the stage for an epidemic. To make matters worse, the city was run by a corrupt political machine, which meant that basic services like sanitation and education often weren’t available for citizens.
Barry spends several pages chronicling the situation with the pandemic in Philadelphia, not just because it was one of the first major cities to be affected, but also because in many ways the city was a microcosm of how the virus affected the whole country. Philadelphia is important symbolically because of its role in the early days of the founding of the United States, and so it’s a natural choice to represent the country as a whole.
Themes
Four days after the Boston sailors arrived, 19 sailors reported influenza symptoms. Despite quarantine efforts, it was too late, and some sick Philadelphia sailors had already left the city. As the epidemic tore through Philadelphia, the city’s public health director, Wilmer Krusen, did nothing (although other public officials tried to take action). Krusen denied that the epidemic was a threat to the city and insisted that all the dead were simply victims of “old-fashioned influenza or grip.”
Krusen’s decision to dismiss the epidemic as influenza was technically correct, but it also showed the arrogance of officials who refused to understand science or listen to experts. While some of his poor leadership can be contributed to him as an individual, it also makes sense to attribute it to the general culture that men like Wilson and Creel had fostered in the U.S. at the time, where it was considered unpatriotic to talk about the influenza epidemic openly.
Themes
At this time, two million Americans were abroad for the war, and even at home, the war seemed to influence every aspect of life. President Wilson and his administration strongly encouraged civilians to make sacrifices, such as giving up meat on certain days. The administration targeted socialists, German nationalists, and union members. Some were imprisoned; others suffered vigilante justice and were even lynched.
While the Wilson administration arguably had legitimate reasons to ask for wartime sacrifices from civilians, Barry makes it clear that Wilson went well beyond what was required and used the war as a pretext to repress groups with only a tangential relation to the war. A minor theme of the book, illustrated in this passage, is how opportunists can use crises to their advantage.
Themes
The government started a “Liberty Loan” campaign that involved selling bonds to average citizens. To promote it, Philadelphia had scheduled a big parade, and despite objections from public health experts, Krusen didn’t cancel it. Krusen heard news that Paul Lewis might be on the verge of identifying the pathogen for the new influenza, meaning a serum and vaccine could soon follow. Krusen only focused on the good news and said the parade would go on.
Today, the Liberty Loan parade is often viewed as a turning point in the pandemic—when the virus really took off among civilian populations. Though it is perhaps unfair to blame a mass outbreak on one person, Krusen’s bad judgement undeniably caused the virus to spread ferociously. Like many officials before and after him, he refused to heed the warnings of experts until the consequences were so obvious that it didn’t take an expert to see them.
Themes
Get the entire The Great Influenza LitChart as a printable PDF.
The incubation period for influenza is 24 to 72 hours. Two days after the parade, Krusen announced that the epidemic had spread from military bases to the civilian population.
The coincidence between the incubation period and Krusen’s announcement helps establish that there was a cause-and-effect relationship between the parade and the outbreak.
Themes
