Essay On Mason City

Improved Essays
Mason City, Iowa is a city in the northern plains of the great state of Iowa. The population of this city currently is just over twenty-eight thousand residents. This city has faced many tragedies in the past including the death of Buddy Holly, multiple natural disasters that most specifically include flooding and tornadoes, and more recently an increased crime rate within the city itself. Even though these problems are some of the issues Mason City, Iowa faces today, back in the time period of 1917-1919 and during World War I, economic, cultural, social, emotional, and political problems not only faced Mason City but many other midsize and large cities around the United States. World War I was not just a time of catastrophe, and triumph, a …show more content…
This influenza was specifically known as the Spanish flu and at its peak eventually killed 195,000 is a single month alone. By the end of this disease nearly one in four Americans suffered from this hyper strain of the flu and the overall death toll from the flu alone was about 700,000 Americans. To put this in comparison with World War I the death toll was only about 115,000 casualties during that one year time period. This is about 1/7th of the total death toll during the great influenza outbreak. Not only were large cities affected by the great influenza epidemic, but smaller cities such as Mason City and even rural communities surrounding Mason were also affected and they worked with the larger cities to find preventative measures. Americans worked to create a preventative vaccine, practiced better hygiene, and even wore face masks but the problems still never subsided. As you can infer from the data given, Americans in general faced many major problems during this small two year time period of 1917-1919. The baggage of going to war against Germany, Austria, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria was also influenced heavily during this time by the great Spanish influenza

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Everybody gets the flu sometimes. It is a quite a common occurrence. In fact, about five to twenty percent of the United States population get the flu each year. Many may not know this, but “flu” is actually an abbreviation. An abbreviation for what, one might ask?…

    • 191 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In chapter 23 it talks about many physicians and laboratories who studied and tried their hardest to figure out a solution to this enormous influenza issue. The chapter starts off with laboratories everywhere focusing on the influenza. In britain everyone in almroth wright’s worked on it, especially alexander fleming. Germany, italy, and russia all searched for an answer. By fall of 1918 research had been cut and the focus was only on war, so researchers focused on poison gas and how to fight against it, preventing infection of wounds , also ways to prevent diseases such as trench fever which is not serious but had already tooken troops.…

    • 503 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    World War II DBQ Essay

    • 1090 Words
    • 5 Pages

    During the 1920s and the 1930s American was in a state of depression as a result of the stock market crash and bank failures. This drove many Americans into a state of poverty and devastation, this was called the Great Depression and in 1939 World War 2 began. This was one of the darkest periods of time for the world as everything was thrown into chaos. Tempted to stay out of the war, the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, brought the U.S. into World War 2. Even though the war was fought abroad, it had a greatly affected many Americans.…

    • 1090 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    American Exploration Dbq

    • 1017 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Miguel Leon-Portilla writes, ¨the sick were so utterly helpless, they could only lie on their beds like corpses¨ (document 4). In the text Portilla describes the the amount of grief and sickness that overcame may Aztecs during Cortes conquest of Mexico. Yale historian David Brion Davis calls it, ẗhe greatest genocide in history(6). This is comparable with if we go to foreign countries, we sometimes get sick because our body is not use to the germs that are found there. Thatś why the Ebola outbreak a couple years ago was such a threat, is there was ever big population to get the disease is america we would be defenseless because our bodies do not know how to go fight off certain diseases.…

    • 1017 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    St. Louis Accomplishments

    • 515 Words
    • 3 Pages

    150,000 of its residents had experiences in the armed forces that would stay with them for a lifetime, ration systems and resource scarcity strained supply lines across the United States, and citizens made countless sacrifices for a greater cause. In a sense that was the most impactful part World War II had on St. Louis, people came together with the unified goal of victory. Whether it was fighting on the fronts, bandaging the wounded, or assembling a wartime commodity did not matter, what mattered was winning. St. Louis did its job in the greater scheme of things during the war, and in return became a more unified community ready to embrace the world after World War II…

    • 515 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A quarter of the way through the century the worst economic recession in history hit America. The populus of the United states lived through ten grueling years of hardship up until the year America entered the war. The entire country raised itself from the ground and stood proud not only against its enemies but for the ideals it stood for. World War Two brought on a new wave of American idealism and propelled the country into an age of world dominance. From there, their war changed to a fight for democracy in the west against the communists in the east.…

    • 1027 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Americans have changed quite a lot throughout the years, it was not always as simple as it is today. Diseases were not easy to cure and they were not rapidly treated as they are today. They gained a lot of assistance to treat these illnesses. However, when America was first introduced to these diseases they were easily spread and they were not so simple to cure. Christopher Columbus discovered America and he brought some Europeans over along with himself, but some diseases were also brought over which was spread quickly causing the death of many natives.…

    • 1296 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Spanish flu, also known today as influenza peaked during this period of rapid change. The disease killed enormous amounts of people and incapacitated everyday living. The Chinese, blacks, First Nations people, and minorities were discriminated against. They…

    • 1078 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the fall of 1918, World War I was winding down and peace was on the horizon. US involvement in this Great War and its success in defeating Germany in the war greatly increased its national prestige among the countries, especially those in Europe. However, with the end of World War I, a deadly virus started to spread within the country, killing more people than during World War I. The influenza pandemic had disrupted US economy, in terms of gross annual production and loss of businesses, and led to temporary banning of mass gathering and disinfection and hygiene measures by US governments, yet the increased public awareness of influenza, rise of healthcare organizations and improved public healthcare system were the greatest impacts of influenza…

    • 362 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The Relationship Between World War I and the Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919 War and disease have been intertwined throughout history as human pathogens, weapons and armies have met on the battlefield. 1914-1919 marked the cruelest war in the chronicles of the human race preceded by the world’s deadliest unspoken pandemic. The aftermath of World War I proved so profound in their consequences that the influenza virus remained a blur in the public’s memory. Instead, focus was shifted towards the events that were results of World War I such as the rise of fascism, the Great Depression, World War II, and the Cold War (Kent Introduction 23).…

    • 1483 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Influenza In Philadelphia

    • 619 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Around this time, many jobs in shipbuilding opened up in Philadelphia. The cost was that there was limited space and the potential of getting infected. African Americans had to live in slums, which were breeding grounds for Influenza. Philadelphia’s health administrators furthered the spread of Influenza with a concert that had 200,000 people come. After that, 635 people got the flu.…

    • 619 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Essay On New Haven

    • 1723 Words
    • 7 Pages

    New Haven, a city in Connecticut, is notable for undergoing major changes during the city’s existence. It doesn’t offer images glamorous and lavish lifestyle like major US cities, or the dream of someone coming into this city and having it change their entire life. Nonetheless, it offers the idea of the American Dream, New Haven is a city where one can own a house a among the most modern and sophisticated infrastructures. Its history of development and redevelopment is an uncommon story, consequently New Haven has been examined multiple times because it has a unique urban renewal experience. However, the implications of New Haven’s urban renewal projects have gone unheard and unforeseen by the common citizen.…

    • 1723 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Introduction Influenza A virus is a respiratory pathogen that seasonally causes approximately 200,000 hospitalizations every year in US alone and affects human health worldwide extensively [1]. Seasonal viruses circulating in the human population cause annual epidemics with about 500,000 deaths per year. Furthermore, novel strains of influenza A virus without pre-existing immunity could cause a global pandemic with a high fatality rate; the 2009 H1N1 pandemic caused 151,700–575,400 deaths in its first year of circulation. [2, 3] Viral pneumonia is the main complication in response to influenza infection, with or without secondary bacterial infections [4-6].…

    • 1233 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    1920s Consumerism Essay

    • 1088 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The 1920’s can be described as the old way of life clashing with the new way of life. This time period was a reaction to what happened in the war. World War I and consumerism affected the United States in the 1920s because the economy fluctuated with good and bad change, professional and college athletics and the arts thrived socially, and culturally there was continued segregation for immigrants and blacks, women’s rights improved, and argumentative views proved hard times in America. Economically, the United States flourished at first after the war, but gradually fell into a depression.…

    • 1088 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Red Scare In The 1920s

    • 1550 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Abdulwahab ahmed The United States had attempted to return to normalcy following the first world war, but had gone through some problems or economic changes to achieve this dream. The problems that the U.S. had went through is the red scare which is when the government had blamed some immigrants of being communists. They also went through some of economic changes like the movement for women's rights which marked a positive change in America. In the 1920s was a first time where automobiles were used for everyday things. The stock market boom was a big event that helps the United States to return to normalcy.…

    • 1550 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays