History Post-confederation (1867-)
Nova Scotia and the Great Influenza Pandemic, 1918-1920
A Remembrance of the Dead and an Archive for the Living
- Publisher
- Nimbus Publishing
- Initial publish date
- Nov 2020
- Category
- Post-Confederation (1867-), 20th Century, Respiratory
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781771089159
- Publish Date
- Nov 2020
- List Price
- $32.95
Add it to your shelf
Where to buy it
Description
The definitive academic resource on the Great Influenza by the celebrated historian behind Black Loyalists in time for the pandemic's centenary.
It could kill in as little as ten hours. Extremely high fever, bleeding from eyes, nose, and ears, terrible pain, especially in the head and the joints, delirium—and then its victims literally drowned in their own fluids. Fifty to 100 million people worldwide died in this global pandemic in the early twentieth century.
The Great Influenza first entered Nova Scotia through ports. (Sydney, Cape Breton, received five hundred sick American troops in a single day.) For three years, the province coped with this vicious epidemic as it spread like wildfire. Local economies ceased functioning; fishing fleets, banks, and apple-canning factories reported all staff were suffering from the flu.
The heart of this book, however, is its human element. Oral histories, family memoirs, newspaper articles, and provincial death records tell, county by county, stories of those who died. Accompanied by 20 photographs, Nova Scotia and the Great Influenza Pandemic, 1918–1920 chronicles both provincial and personal efforts to cope during this most perilous time.
About the author
Ruth Holmes Whitehead has worked since 1972 for the Nova Scotia Museum, since 2003 as a Curator Emerita and Research Associate. She has authored or co-authored twenty books, including Stories from the Six Worlds, The Old Man Told Us, Black Loyalists, and Ancestral Images. In 1995, she was awarded a Doctorate of Laws, honoris causa, by St. Francis Xavier University. In 2014, Dr. Whitehead was inducted into the Order of Nova Scotia. She lives in Halifax.
Other titles by
Old Man Told Us (new edition)
Niniskamijinaqik / Ancestral Images
The Mi'kmaq in Art and Photography
Black Loyalists
Southern Settlers of Nova Scotia's First Free Black Communities
Stories From the Six Worlds (2nd edition)
Mi'kmaw Legends
Six Mi'kmaq Stories
Stories From the Six Worlds
The Life of Boston King
Old Man Told Us
Six Micmac Stories
The Mi'kmaq
How Their Ancestors Lived 500 Years Ago