Sobral, José ManuelLima, Maria Luísa2019-08-012019-08-012019Sobral, J. M., Lima, M. L. (2019). Public science: the memory of the influenza epidemic of 1918-19 in Portugal. In Helena da Silva, Paulo Teodoro de Matos, José Miguel Sardica (Eds.), War Hecatomb: International Effects on Public Health, Demography and Mentalities in the 20th Century (Series Population, Famille et Société, Vol. 32), pp. 99-119. Peter Lang978-3-0343-3736-6http://hdl.handle.net/10451/39262In this chapter, the authors focus on the silence surrounding the influenza pandemic of 1918-19. After reviewing the unfolding of the epidemic in the social and health contexts of their time, they show that, despite its dramatic impact, the pandemic turned out to be a little remembered event, in contrast to what happened with the Great War. Based on recent theoretical approaches to social memory and forgetfulness, the authors tackle this issue, advancing explanations for this divergence. They purport to show that, while the War was the object of memorialist, discursive and non-discursive practices which inserted it into public memory with the pandemic none of this happened. It was kept in the context of private memory forgotten outside the family context. Although based on the Porhrguese case, this essay addresses this issue in light of what happened with the general memory of the "Spanish Flu".engSpanish Flu1918-19 PandemicSocial memoryPublic memoryPortugalbook part