Living Through History - Contextualizing the Pandemic for Students
By Ben Burtzos, Academic Coach
Six months into lockdown, it can be hard to think of the current pandemic in terms outside of the daily media barrage. We should nonetheless try to remember that no significant regional or global event, including a plague, occurs in a vacuum. History is filled with examples of rampant diseases, for some of which we can identify distinct proximate causes:
The plague of Athens, recorded by Thucydides, was precipitated by the attack by Sparta and the subsequent withdrawal of the Attic population within the walls of the city
The Black Death, which struck mainland Europe in 1348, followed a period of urbanization, as well as increased travel and trade with central Asian civilizations
Between 1492 and 1510, “Old World” diseases such as smallpox and typhus devastated the indigenous populations of the Americas, who had developed no immunity to these pathogens
It is in vogue to refer to the current pandemic as an unprecedented situation. This is an accurate but misleading label. While none of the above plagues, nor any others in our history, quite mirror the present, a more instructive and helpful way to think of our current situation is that it is deeply and truly historic.
Plagues and pandemics are cataclysmic events, and while in retrospect it can be useful to diagnose their causes, students with an interest in history will also benefit from examining their influence on the politics and culture of the world. Just as surely as pandemics do not arise in a vacuum, neither do they recede into one. Consider just a few outcomes of the plagues above:
In 429 BCE, Athens’ greatest statesman, Pericles, died of the plague, just a year into the war with Sparta. Athens would lose a third of its population to disease and ultimately lose the conflict, effectively ending the Golden Age of ancient Greece
The shortage of peasants in Europe led to a greater demand for labor, and contributed to peasant revolts in England and France by the end of the 14th century
With at least 50% of the indigenous population already dead, European conquerors easily dominated the “New World,” jump-starting the Age of Exploration and creating hierarchical societies that would have far-reaching consequences for centuries
Students are in a position to see history as it is being made, and to investigate how a global event like the current pandemic can have far-reaching consequences into the worlds of culture and politics. Indeed, this type of research is often called political epidemiology.
How did we get here? What happens now?
These are hard questions to answer, because they are so vast. But children of all ages can see that changes, some temporary and some more far-reaching, are happening around them. From expanded take-out and delivery options at restaurants to protests in the streets to the very nature of the Zoom classes kids are taking, this pandemic is changing things. One way to help students understand the present could be to help them look to the past.