Jone\u27s argument is convincing, even if the book relies a little too heavily on newspaper accounts. On the other hand, the author makes use of the unmined files of the Manitoba Mothers\u27 Allowance and the Winnipeg Children\u27s Home to catch a rare and fleeting glimpse of familial life during the pandemic.
On the whole, Influenza 1918 is a stylistically mature, well-documented, and engaging book that delivers cogent and insightful analysis on a timely topic. It is the new standard for studies of the flu and epidemics in Canada and will serve as an excellent model for some time to come

Humphries, Mark Osborne

English

DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska

University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences Great Plains Studies, Center for 2008 Book Review: Influenza 1918: Disease, Death, and Struggle in Winnipeg By Esyllt W. Jones Mark Osborne Humphries Mount Royal College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsresearch  Part of the Other International and Area Studies Commons Humphries, Mark Osborne, "Book Review: Influenza 1918: Disease, Death, and Struggle in Winnipeg By Esyllt W. Jones" (2008). Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences. 981. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsresearch/981 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. 242 Influenza 1918: Disease, Death, and Struggle in Win-nipeg. By Esyllt W. Jones. Toronto: University of To-ronto Press, 2007. ix + 248 pp. Notes, bibliography, index. $65.00 cloth, $27.95 paper. Historians of the 1918 flu once claimed that the pan-demic had been forgotten by history. In recent years, however, it has been pulled off the rubbish heap, dusted off, and given a number of excellent book-length histori-cal treatments in Britain and the United States. Canada, however, has not received as much recent attention; that is until the publication of Esyllt Jones's excellent mono-graph. Jones shows how the experience of influenza sheds light on familial, gender, and community relationships in a city just beginning its decline from prominence as the Chicago of the north. She treats "the disease itself as an historical actor, one that played a powerful role in ar-ticulating and redefining boundaries of social difference, particularly the boundaries of ethnicity and class that so profoundly marked Winnipeg society in this period." She then sets out to answer the question of whether influenza was a source of social division or a force of community cohesion. In reaching an answer, Jones focuses most on the sites of familial and public interaction, or the "contact zones," between women and men, various ethnic groups, social classes, and organized labor. She argues that while the pandemic cast women into a prominent public role, it was based on the notion that women were natural caregiv-ers. The pandemic thus reinforced rather than subverted gender roles. Likewise, while women crossed "diseased © 2008 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Great Plains Research Vol. 18 No.2, 2008 boundaries" of class and ethnicity as volunteer nurses, contact tended to reinforce existing class and ethnic relationships as wealthy Anglo-Saxon women "did their duty" in coming to the aid of poor and marginalized im-migrant groups. If the pandemic reinforced social and gender divides, Jones also suggests that it brought immediacy to the labor movement, accentuating the need for systemic reform. In this analysis, influenza is seen as a factor exacerbating existing tensions and reinforcing longstanding com-plaints and grievances that perhaps even led to the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike. In the end, it is the family that suffered most from the disease, and the author concludes that the internal social support networks established dur-ing the pandemic period were essential to the survival of the family unit in the years after the epidemic. From these observations, Jones concludes that the pandemic re-inforced existing class, gender, and ethnic relationships, constructing or intensifying collective identities within existing groups, but not across the social spectrum as a whole. Influenza threatened the larger social fabric while strengthening the individual strands and threads. lones's argument is convincing, even if the book relies a little too heavily on newspaper accounts. On the other hand, the author makes use of the unmined files of the Manitoba Mothers' Allowance and the Winnipeg Children's Home to catch a rare and fleeting glimpse of familial life during the pandemic. On the whole, Influenza 1918 is a stylistically mature, well-documented, and engaging book that delivers cogent and insightful analysis on a timely topic. It is the new standard for studies of the flu and epidemics in Canada and will serve as an excellent model for some time to come. Mark Osborne Humphries, Department of Hu-manities, Mount Royal College, Calgary, Alberta. 

Book Review: \u3ci\u3eInfluenza 1918: Disease, Death, and Struggle in Winnipeg\u3c/i\u3e By Esyllt W. Jones

UNL | Libraries

University of Nebraska - Lincoln 
DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln 
Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and 
Social Sciences Great Plains Studies, Center for 
2008 
Book Review: Influenza 1918: Disease, Death, and Struggle in 
Winnipeg By Esyllt W. Jones 
Mark Osborne Humphries 
Mount Royal College 
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsresearch 
 Part of the Other International and Area Studies Commons 
Humphries, Mark Osborne, "Book Review: Influenza 1918: Disease, Death, and Struggle in Winnipeg By 
Esyllt W. Jones" (2008). Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences. 981. 
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsresearch/981 
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at 
DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Research: A 
Journal of Natural and Social Sciences by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - 
Lincoln. 
242 
Influenza 1918: Disease, Death, and Struggle in Win-
nipeg. By Esyllt W. Jones. Toronto: University of To-
ronto Press, 2007. ix + 248 pp. Notes, bibliography, index. 
$65.00 cloth, $27.95 paper. 
Historians of the 1918 flu once claimed that the pan-
demic had been forgotten by history. In recent years, 
however, it has been pulled off the rubbish heap, dusted 
off, and given a number of excellent book-length histori-
cal treatments in Britain and the United States. Canada, 
however, has not received as much recent attention; that 
is until the publication of Esyllt Jones's excellent mono-
graph. 
Jones shows how the experience of influenza sheds 
light on familial, gender, and community relationships 
in a city just beginning its decline from prominence as 
the Chicago of the north. She treats "the disease itself as 
an historical actor, one that played a powerful role in ar-
ticulating and redefining boundaries of social difference, 
particularly the boundaries of ethnicity and class that so 
profoundly marked Winnipeg society in this period." She 
then sets out to answer the question of whether influenza 
was a source of social division or a force of community 
cohesion. 
In reaching an answer, Jones focuses most on the sites 
of familial and public interaction, or the "contact zones," 
between women and men, various ethnic groups, social 
classes, and organized labor. She argues that while the 
pandemic cast women into a prominent public role, it was 
based on the notion that women were natural caregiv-
ers. The pandemic thus reinforced rather than subverted 
gender roles. Likewise, while women crossed "diseased 
© 2008 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln 
Great Plains Research Vol. 18 No.2, 2008 
boundaries" of class and ethnicity as volunteer nurses, 
contact tended to reinforce existing class and ethnic 
relationships as wealthy Anglo-Saxon women "did their 
duty" in coming to the aid of poor and marginalized im-
migrant groups. 
If the pandemic reinforced social and gender divides, 
Jones also suggests that it brought immediacy to the labor 
movement, accentuating the need for systemic reform. In 
this analysis, influenza is seen as a factor exacerbating 
existing tensions and reinforcing longstanding com-
plaints and grievances that perhaps even led to the 1919 
Winnipeg General Strike. In the end, it is the family that 
suffered most from the disease, and the author concludes 
that the internal social support networks established dur-
ing the pandemic period were essential to the survival 
of the family unit in the years after the epidemic. From 
these observations, Jones concludes that the pandemic re-
inforced existing class, gender, and ethnic relationships, 
constructing or intensifying collective identities within 
existing groups, but not across the social spectrum as a 
whole. Influenza threatened the larger social fabric while 
strengthening the individual strands and threads. 
lones's argument is convincing, even if the book 
relies a little too heavily on newspaper accounts. On the 
other hand, the author makes use of the unmined files 
of the Manitoba Mothers' Allowance and the Winnipeg 
Children's Home to catch a rare and fleeting glimpse of 
familial life during the pandemic. 
On the whole, Influenza 1918 is a stylistically mature, 
well-documented, and engaging book that delivers cogent 
and insightful analysis on a timely topic. It is the new 
standard for studies of the flu and epidemics in Canada 
and will serve as an excellent model for some time to 
come. Mark Osborne Humphries, Department of Hu-
manities, Mount Royal College, Calgary, Alberta. 


https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1980&amp;context=greatplainsresearch

Book Review: \u3ci\u3eInfluenza 1918: Disease, Death, and Struggle in Winnipeg\u3c/i\u3e By Esyllt W. Jones

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