Historyzine: The History Podcast

In The first episode of those series we did an introduction. In the second we tried to make an emotional connection with the pain and suffering caused by the Spanish Flu. In this episode we seek to construct a timeline so that we have something coherent, on which we can hang all the events, and reactions to the events, that we will look at later in the series.

This is my attempt to do that.

In this third episode I follow the progress of the epidemic as it sweeps across the world, mutating in form and virulence throughout the three waves.

We see the initial wave of infection causing a huge amount of death and chaos in April to June 1918. There is then the second and more deadly wave of the flu pandemic, appearing initially in Brest, Freetown and Boston, in August to December and then the return of the disease in the early part of 1919.

A vicious 3 wave attack on the entirety of humanity.

References for podcast content:

The Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919: New Perspectives edited by David Killingray, Howard Phillips

Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World by Laura Spinney

Influenza Archive Boston

Meg Sorick

For this episode of the podcast I wanted to try and get a feel for the actual experience of suffering the disease. I wanted to know what Spanish Flu was like on a personal level.

To accomplish this I needed to uncover contemporary accounts from the time, that gave details of the damage inflicted and the distress caused by the influenza.

I was surprised to find relatively few of these accounts but I did find one that had everything that I required. It is fictional but is written by someone who had suffered and survived a severe bout of Spanish Flu in 1918.

This is the story, Pale Horse, Pale Rider by Katherine Anne Porter. It is beautifully written and heart rendingly tragic. It concerns a newspaper woman Miranda and a soldier, Adam. It is an incredibly detailed account of the symptoms and, in particular the delirium and confusion of the experience

This podcast also draws upon information in the article, “It’s as Bad as Anything Can Be”: Patients, Identity, and the Influenza Pandemic by Dr Nancy K Bristow https://doi.org/10.1177%2F00333549101250S316

History is a series of recurrences.

Over and over again we see much that is similar. While history doesn’t exactly repeat itself, it does often rhyme (wish I’d have said that but it was actually Mark Twain). We are currently (spring 2020) in the middle of a global pandemic, the like of which we could not have imagined only a few short months ago.

However, I wonder if we could – if we should have been able to imagine it.

In 1918 there was a pandemic that was very similar in scope to what we see now, although we have to hope, that we don’t match the scale of that one. The flu pandemic of 1918 (widely known as the Spanish Flu) killed between 17 and 100 million people. It spread extremely fast and affected almost every part of the world.

Our current Coronavirus pandemic, although a different virus, is affecting us in extremely similar ways.

In this series I intend to look at the similarities and the differences between the two outbreaks and maybe see if there are useful lessons that we could learn from the 1918 flu epidemic.

This first episode sketches out some of the basic facts behind the Spanish Flu to provide us a base, to probe a little deeper into the lives of those who went before us, and how they coped with this horror.

We will explore how it started, how it progressed and how destructive it was.

In future episodes we will look at the ways in which people reacted, and the actions that governments took to combat the virus. There will be letters from the period, advertisements for bizarre medicines and conspiracy theories as tangled and strange as those we see today.

I invite you all to accompany me on this journey as we explore this comparison between our present Coronavirus and the 1918 Spanish Flu, and see how alike, or unalike they actually are.

Historyzine’s retelling of The War of the Spanish Succession now reaches the year 1708 and the Battle of Oudenarde. The Duke of Burgundy and the Marshall Vendome make initial gains in the Spanish Netherlands moving swiftly to take control of the fortress cities of Ghent and Bruges. Looking to strengthen their supply routes back toward France they move toward Oudenarde.

The allies move fast and manage to surprise the French army just to the North of the city.

The troops engage but it’s all a bit hesitant until Rantzau launches his cavalry, slamming into the unprepared left flank of the French army. More and more troops are fed into the fray and the battle front extends further and further and further with both sides continually threaten to flank the other. The allied troops are moving on to the battlefield from the bridges at Eename but also General Overkirk is advancing through Oudenarde itself with 25,000 troops. He will take these troops around the back of the French battle line and then, hopefully take them by surprise. By 10 o clock at night the French find themselves almost completely encircled.

So, that’s the special feature section – The War of the Spanish Succession.

In the magazine portion of the show we look at the word ‘ye’.

I interview the military history author, James Falkner

and there is a review of the podcast, A History of Rome.

The music you hear in this podcast is by Gustav Holst and you’ll be able to download it from the website http://musopen.com/

If you wish to comment on the podcasts then please visit the website, historyzine.com or visit the contact page and leave me an email using the contact form there.

Also I wish to draw your attention to the twitter feed we’ve started for the Historyzine History podcast.

You’ll find Historyzine twittering away at http://twitter.com/Historyzine .

I hope you enjoy the podcast. Press the play button below to listen or subscribe (it’s completely free) using one of the two buttons at the top of this post. One will link you to your Itunes program and the other will give you an rss link for your podcast feed aggregator. Happy listening.

Historyzine now moves into the year 1707 in the saga of the War of the Spanish Succession. This year the allies are looking to attack Toulon and hopefully make more gains in the Spanish Netherlands. The Duke of Marlborough has an army of 80,000 in the Low countries facing off against Villars who has 100,000 under his control. Prince Eugene leads an army of 35,000 against Toulon and the Earl Galway is left with only 15,500 in Spain which he uses to bring the Duke of Berwick to battle at Almanza.

Galway, of course, is on to a loser and is soundly beaten by the French in a terrible setback for the allies in Spain. They fair little better at Toulon and after an abortive siege there, they retreat back to Italy. The Admiral supporting this endeavour is Sir Cloudesley Shovel and he returns home only to be shipwrecked in one of the worst naval disasters ever recorded, off the Scilly Isles, only a few miles from port It’s a poor year for the Anglo/Dutch/English and Portuguese alliance and all around they are beset by failure and disaster.

In the magazine portion of the show the Linguistic History Trivia Bit, looks at the words Avatar, Thug and Blighty. As the more perceptive among you will note, all these words have an Indian origin. The Indian theme grows out of one of the History podcast reviews which is of the UCLA series on British India.You’ll find this series at  the UCLA Office of Instructional Development. The other podcast review this time is the series, Stuff you Missed in History Class.

There’s a couple of announcements in the show. I exhort you to visit my online shop at http://historyshopper.com. to take a look at my history themed birthday cards and also to come along to the Marlborough Study Day on march 13th at the Assembly House in Norwich . This will feature the military history writers, James Falkner and Richard Holmes and it’s a Battlefields Trust Event . Tickets are only 15 pounds, with part of the proceeds going to Help for Heroes . Here is the note which appeared in the Early 18th Century Wars mailing list

We have Richard Holmes and James Falkner speaking at Norwich on Marlborough and his battles on Saturday March 13th at 14:00 at The Assembly House.

Tickets available from 20 Rowington Road, Norwich. NR1 3RR.

Please make cheques available to the Battlefields Trust.

The intro music for this episode is Die Valkure Fantasie, composed by Richard Wagner.

Some of the sources I use for this podcast can be found at My Amazon UK Affiliate page

If you wish to comment on the podcasts then please visit the website, historyzine.com or visit the contact page and leave me an email using the contact form there.

Historyzine 17 features 1706 and the Aftermath of Battle of Ramilies as well as the relief of Turin in our War of the Spanish Succession section. In the linguistic history trivia bit we’ll be looking at a couple of printing terms which have morphed into regularly used modern day phrases. The phrases I’ll be focussing upon are, uppercase and lowercase as well as getting ahold of the wrong end of the stick. They’re a fascinating couple of phrases and I very much enjoyed researching their provenance.

Composing Stick

We have a short interview with Richard Saunders from Historypress who talks a little about the most popular of the history books at the History Press and tells us a little about the commissioning and submission procedures at the History Press.

The intro music for this episode is The Brandenburg Concerto 6 by Johann Sebastian Bach and the outro music is also by Bach and is Air on the G String.

Some of the sources I use for this podcast can be found at My Amazon UK Affiliate page

If you wish to comment on the podcasts then please visit the website, historyzine.com or visit the contact page and leave me an email using the contact form there.

As you can see from this map, the only clear country in which you can properly engage your cavalry is that section inbetween Overkirk’s troops and the Maison Du Roi.

The Linguistic History Trivia Bit for this episode covers the phrase, ‘Nose to the Grindstone’ as shown in this jolly picture. The podcast review for this time is Lars Brownworth’s delightful new podcast, The Norman Centuries. I don’t think I’m giving much away when I say I very much enjoy this podcast and await, with delight, each new episode.

Some of the sources I use for this podcast can be found at My Amazon UK Affiliate page

or my United States of America Affiliate page . There are lots of very useful books there if you want to know more about the War of the Spanish Succession and if you decide to buy any of them then using the links from the pages of Historyzine will send a tiny fraction of money my way which will help offset some of the costs of the podcast.

If you wish to comment on the podcasts then please visit the website, historyzine.com or visit the contact page and leave me an email using the contact form there.

Also I wish to draw your attention to the new twitter feed we’ve started for the Historyzine History podcast.

You’ll find Historyzine twittering away at http://twitter.com/Historyzine .

I hope you enjoy the podcast. Press the play button below to listen or subscribe (it’s completely free) using one of the two buttons at the top of this post. One will link you to your Itunes program and the other will give you an rss link for your podcast feed aggregator. Happy listening.

Historyzine follows the Duke of Marlborough as he conducts an epic journey of almost 2000 miles by carriage and barge during the fierce winter months in order to soothe and cajole the various allies.

If you wish to leave feedback on the podcast then do so through the site http://historyzine.com/ or use the contact page to send a form email http://historyzine.com/contact/

Exploring the phrase – Fork it over. Is it a man with a pitchfork handing over his produce to the landlord or is it a pickpocket thing?

A review of ‘In Our Time’. The BBC radio 4 series ‘In Our Time’ is placed under the Historyzine microscope.

The War of the Spanish Succession, 1705 – Forcing the Lines of Brabant.

Some of the sources I use for this podcast can be found at My Amazon UK Affiliate page

If you wish to comment on the podcasts then please visit the website, historyzine.com or visit the contact page and leave me an email using the contact form there.

The linguistic history trivia bit in this episode is a look at the word Macaroni and what it meant when bandied around in the coffee houses of 18th century London. It’s a fun word describing quite a bizarre fashion set. You’ll find out more by listening to the podcast either by clicking on the play link at the end of this post or downloading and playing it in Itunes.

As promised in the podcast, here is the link to the program, levelator.

Some of the sources I use for this podcast can be found at Amazon.co.uk in the UK

If you wish to comment on the podcasts then please visit the website, historyzine.com or visit the contact page and leave me an email using the contact form there.