The Perfect Storm: WWI and the Flu Pandemic of 1918
November 27, 2018, 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
In conjunction with the centennial of the end of World War I and the Geneva Historical Society's current exhibit, A Changing World: Geneva and World War I, the Historical Society's Fall Lecture Series will feature programs about the war.
In our November lecture, historian Robert Brown will examine the largely overlooked relationship between the Great War of 1914-18 and the Great Flu Pandemic of 1918. The focus will be on how the First World War created the ideal conditions for a pandemic situation to emerge in 1918 and how, in turn, the unprecedented sickness and mortality flu generated adversely impacted upon the conduct of the war.
Dr. Robert Brown is Professor of History at SUNY Finger Lakes Community College, where he has taught since 2003. He is also former Research Associate at the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at University College London. He has published numerous articles on the subject of the flu pandemic of 1918 and contributed to the PBS documentary Secrets of the Dead: Killer Flu. He is currently at work on the book Fatal Alliance: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Great War. He has a Ph.D. from Syracuse University.
This lecture is supported in part by the Samuel B. Williams fund for programs in the Humanities and is free and open to the public. For more information about the program, call the Geneva Historical Society office at 315-789-5151.
« Back to Calendar of Events