Forgetting the Pandemic

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Wartime poster advertising victory bonds. Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.

In the immediate aftermath of the war and the deadly pandemic, Americans struggled to put the devastation behind them. Wartime media built morale through joyful themes in everything from music to advertising in an effort to help Americans forget the gloom of wartime life. Songs such as "Happy Days are Here Again" (published a decade later, but inspired by the armistice) encouraged optimism amongst postwar Americans. The darkness of Edwardian art and architecture gave way to the exuberance of Expressionism and Art Deco.

Despite this brightness, however, a certain caution remained. Communities nationwide, especially larger cities, endeavored to maintain sanitation and health standards by posting public bulletins to increase awareness and establishing public health clinics for the poor. Almost as quickly as it had appeared, the flu became memory. By summer 1919, when President Woodrow Wilson contracted it in Versailles, the flu's death rate returned to normal from its high levels during the pandemic. Although the virus mutated and remained dangerous for years to come, in the years following World War I there was a palpable sense of relief and jubilation among Americans who had survived both the war and another terrifying enemy—the flu pandemic of 1918.