The German Plague: Contagion and Conspiracy in First World War America

During the First World War, the American home front was awash with conspiracy theories alleging that internal German enemies were intentionally spreading disease among both human and animal populations, most egregiously in the case of the influenza epidemic. While false, these stories nonetheless re...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inModern American history (Cambridge.) Vol. 6; no. 1; pp. 2 - 20
Main Author Givens, Cameron James
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Cambridge Cambridge University Press 01.03.2023
Subjects
20th century
Agriculture
Animal populations
Cattle
Conspiracy
Disease
Epidemics
Gossip
Influenza
Modernity
Pandemics
Public health
Public officials
Rural areas
World War I
United States > US
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Summary:During the First World War, the American home front was awash with conspiracy theories alleging that internal German enemies were intentionally spreading disease among both human and animal populations, most egregiously in the case of the influenza epidemic. While false, these stories nonetheless revealed Americans’ shifting relationships to the environment, warfare, and the federal state. They channeled immediate fears over what type of war, and what type of enemy, the nation faced, as well as deeper, Progressive-era anxieties related to the dramatic expansions of government and scientific expertise in American life. As an unexplored vernacular archive, they underline how the war permitted individuals to discuss, denounce, and contest state and scientific authority at this moment in the early twentieth century.
ISSN:2515-0456
2397-1851
DOI:10.1017/mah.2023.1