Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
How Unique is Our Present Crisis Really?

How Unique is Our Present Crisis Really?

Last updated on: April 29, 2020 at 5:00 am by Andrea L. Turpin

How Unique is Our Present Crisis Really? 2020-04-29T02:31:16-04:00 Andrea L. Turpin

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

For 9 years now, nearly every semester I have taught a survey course on the second half of American history. The story line is so deeply embedded in my brain that I could spontaneously regale you with nearly any lecture from this course. I have sometimes spontaneously regaled my friends with pieces of the narrative over lunch. I am grateful they are still my friends.

American history is therefore the lens through which I see the present. As each new weird thing has happened over the last few months of the coronavirus crisis, I’ve thought, “Oh, this is like that time in American history when….”

The most obvious, of course, is the flu epidemic of 1918. But I’ve actually never taught about that, so I’ve been learning about it along with everyone else. It’s therefore other aspects of our situation that have jumped out at me.

Here are some examples:

The U.S. unemployment rate may be approaching 20%. Comparison: Previous economic depressions and recessions. Peak unemployment rate in the Great Depression of the 1930s was 25%. But from 1931 to 1940 it never dropped below 14%. The Panic of 1893 was about half as bad. At that time, unemployment exceeded 25% in parts of the country, and an overall recession of around 12% unemployment lasted for 5 years. The Great Recession of 2008 was also bad—and still vivid in our memory—but milder still. Unemployment stayed at 8-10% for four years, and then recovered.

I can’t get the products I want when I want them. First comparison: the World Wars. I love showing students all of the

Office of Price Administration // Public Domain

propaganda posters from World War I. One of my favorites announces “Eat More Cottage Cheese!” The point was that if you got your protein from dairy, you saved more meat for the troops. I hate cottage cheese, so this would have been a real sacrifice for me. Multiple items were rationed during World War II, including gasoline, tires, sugar, coffee, meat, cheese, and milk. Gasoline was rationed to 3 gallons a week. I couldn’t get to work and back home every day on 3 gallons a week (before our shelter-in-place!). Second comparison: the 1970s. Speaking of gas, not only did prices skyrocket in the 1970s, but sometimes it simply couldn’t be had at any price. You know, like toilet paper.

The government is restricting my freedom of movement. Comparison: the draft (World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam). Only since the end of the conflict in Vietnam (so named because Congress never approved a formal declaration of war!) has the United States relied on an all-volunteer armed forces. And of course the federal government retains the right to reinstitute the draft if needed. One of the things that has struck me recently is that so many current pro-reopening protestors identify with the political right, but their closest historical counterparts are…the draft-card-burning hippies of the 1960s. Speaking of which, more Americans have now died of the coronavirus than in combat in Vietnam.

Now no time in history is exactly like any other time. Thus, the Great Depression cannot teach us exactly what to do economically in the present because many variables are different. But that doesn’t mean the past has nothing to teach us.

Indeed, much of what we know about the effectiveness of social distancing and subsequent economic recovery comes from the 1918 flu outbreak. We cannot translate the lessons exactly: one hundred years later, Americans are connected in all sorts of different ways and our economy is different too. But perhaps our ancestors would be at least somewhat comforted to know that their suffering nevertheless bequeathed to us some wisdom and direction in the present.

We have one other thing in common with all Americans who lived through past epidemics, recessions, and wars: we did not expect this. I try to drill into my students that they should consider when voting for President the person’s approach to both domestic and foreign policy and the person’s choice for Vice President. Because you never know what is going to happen over the course of four years. Presidents elected for their domestic agendas ended up heading a wartime nation. Presidents died early in their term and their Vice President took over. I will never have to sell this point again.

September 11th Tribute in Light from Bayonne, New Jersey, 11 September 2014, by Anthony Quintano // Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Or will I? These comparisons with the past suggest an encouraging pattern: this too shall pass. It might be bad for a long time. Individually we might suffer a permanent reduction in our fortunes, or even die young. But the country as a whole has suffered equally bad things in the past and come through it, and likely will again.

I have only just reached the point when almost none of my students can remember 9/11. And a friend pointed out to me that I will not yet have reached retirement age when almost none of my students will remember this pandemic.

I don’t know what the future holds. It could be bad. The Great Depression and World War II, 1930–1945, are years I would not want to have lived through. I very much hope 2020–2035 do not mirror them. But either way, I take comfort from the fact that it is likely that in 2040 I will be explaining the impact of COVID-19 to a freshman class who knows it only as history.

Andrea Turpin

Coronavirus

Historical Profession

Previous Post

April 28, 2020

“Flying by Foy” in the classroom: face-to-face teaching as live theater, wires, pulleys, and all

Next Post

April 30, 2020 Remembering Fr. Lawrence Lucas and Understanding the Black Catholic Movement – An Interview with Matthew Cressler

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abolitionism Abortion Abraham Joshua Heschel Abraham Kuyper Abraham Lincoln Academia Activism Adam Renberg Advent Adventist africa African American Religion Agnes Howard Albert Camus American History American Religious History American Revolution American West Anabaptists Ancient History Andrea Turpin Andrei Tarkovsky Anglicanism Annales Ansley Lillian Quiros anti-Catholicism Antisemitism Anxious Bench apologetics Apparitions Arash Azizi Archaeology archives art Artificial Intelligence Asia Asian Americans Augustine Authors Bad Bunny Baptism Baptists Barack Obama Battle of Hastings Benjamin Franklin Bernard-Henri Levy Beth Allison Barr Beth Moore Bethany Mannon Bible Bill Cunningham Billy Graham Black Music Bob Dylan Body Boenhoffer Books Breastfeeding Bruce Springsteen C.S. Lewis Calvinism Cancel Culture Capitalism Carmelites Catholicism Cedric Robinson Cesar Chavez Charismaticism charity Charles Dickens Charles Lindbergh Che Guevara Chicago Children Chinese Christianity Chris Gehrz Christ Christian death Christian Higher Education Christian life Christian Nation Christian Nationalism Christianity Today Christmas Church life Church Practice cinema Civil Religion Civil Rights Movement Civil War civility Classics Climate Change Cold War Colonial Mexico colonialism Comer Communism community complementarianism Conference on Faith and History Congregationalism Conspiracies Conspiracy Conversion Narratives Coronavirus Costa Rica Council of Nicaea Covid-19 Creation Critical Race Theory Crusades Culture culture wars Daniel K. Williams David Barton David Swartz Death Ways death with dignity DEI democracy Democratic Party Devotion Digital Age Diplomacy discipleship diversity Donald Trump Drama Dua Lipa Early Church early modern Early modern Catholicism Easter Eastern Christianity economic exploitation Education elections Elie Wiesel Elizabeth II Elizabeth Taylor emotions Empire Engineering England enslavement Entertainment Episcopal Church Erica Ramirez eschatology Eurocentrism Evangelicalism Evangelicals Exegesis Family Feminism Film Flannery O'Connor folk music Food Foreign Policy founding fathers Franciscans Franciscus Junius fundamentalism Funerals G.K. Chesterton Gender Genocide genre geography George W. Bush George Washington George Whitefield Global Christianity Global church Grief Guadalupe Guest Post guest post gun control gun violence Gustavo Gutierrez Hamid Dabashi Harold John Ockenga Harvest Hate Hawaiian Christianity Healing health care Heather Cox Richardson Hell Heresy Hermeneutics Higher Education Hinduism Hippocratic oath Historical Fiction Historical Methodology Historical Profession Historical Profession Historical Theology Historical Thinking historiography Holidays Holocaust horror movies Human rights Humanitarian Work humanities Hummingbirds Hungary hymns Imago Dei Immigration Injustice Interviews Iran Islam Islamophobia Israel Ivan's Childhood Jacob Randolph James Bratt Janine Giordano Drake Japanese history Japanese Literature Jean Paul Sartre Jesse Miranda Jesus Jesus Christ Jimmy Carter Joan Baez Joan Didion Joanne Freeman João B. Chaves Joao Chaves Joey Cochran John Calvin John Fea John Tillotson John Turner Johnny Cash Jonathan Edwards Jonathan Tran Joseph Smith Josh Howerton Journalism Jr. Judaism Jürgen Moltmann Just War Justice Justin Brierley Karl Barth Katelyn Beaty koi ponds Kris Kristofferson Kristin Kobes Du Mez Latin American Religious History Latino Americans Lectio Divina Leisure Lent Leonard Cohen liberal arts liberalism Liberation Theology Linda Ronstadt Lisa Clark Diller Literature Lou Reed Lynchings Lynneth Miller Renberg Mainline Protestantism Malcolm Foley Marilyn Monroe Maritime history Mark Noll Marriage Martin Luther Martin Luther King Martyrdom Marxism Mary Masih Alinejad mass shootings material culture medieval Christianity Medieval Ethiopia Melissa Borja memory Mennonites Mental Health Mental Illness Methodism Mexican Americans Mexicans Mike Madrid Miles Mullin Min Jin Lee Miscarriage Missionaries Mister Rogers Mitt Romney modernity Monasticism Mormonism Motherhood Mothers of the Church Moving Music Musicals Nadya Williams Nahua Christianity Native Americans Natsume Sōseki New Contributor New England New Year New York Nico Non-Violent Protest Orthodoxy pacifism Paleo Evangelicals Palestinians Parenting Patti Smith Paul Kingsnorth Pedro Calderón de la Barca Pentecostalism Philip Jenkins Phillis Wheatley physician-assisted suicide pilgrimage Pilgrims pluralism Plutocracy Poetry Politics Pope Francis Pope Leo XIV post-modernism prayer preaching Presbyterians prosperity gospel Protest Public history Publishing Puritans purity culture Quakers race Race Massacres Racial Capitalism racial reconciliation racialization Racism Raha Bahloulipour Re-Enchantment reading Reformation Refugees religion and the university religion and war Religious Freedom Religious Nones Religious Pluralism Religious Symbols religious violence Republican Party Revival Rita Coolidge Ritual Roger Williams Roman Catholic church Royalty Russell Moore same-sex marriage Sarah Irving-Stonebraker Scandinavia Science Science and Technology Scopes trial Scriptural Interpretation secularism Selena Quintanilla seminary Seventh-Day Adventists sexual morality Sexuality Sikhs Silence slaveholders theology Slavery Slavoj Zizek social justice Social Media Southern Baptist Convention Southern Religion Spain Spiritual Autobiography Spiritual but not religious Spiritual Discipline Sports Stanley Hauerwas Suffering Summer Camps Sunday Night Odds and Ends Supernatural Supreme Court Syriac Christianity Tal Howard Taylor Swift Teaching Technology Television Thanksgiving The Beatles The Mission theater TheoBros Theology Thomas Dixon Thomas Jefferson Thomas Kidd Thomas Merton Tim Gloege Tim Walz Tom Holland Tourism tradition Tragedy Translation Transnationalism Travel Trump Ukraine Uncategorized Unitarians United Methodist Church US History Vanessa Chan Velvet Underground Verónica A. Gutiérrez Veronica Gutierrez Vikings Violence Virgin Mary Virtue Virtue ethics Visions Voting War WCTU Wendell Berry Westminster Assembly White Evangelicalism Wildfires Winnie the Pooh Witches women Women in Ministry Women's and Gender Studies Work Worship writing Yasunari Kawabata Zena Hitz

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

I saw my master taken up to heaven in a whirlwind and received a double portion of his spirit. Who am I?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Samuel Elisha Joshua Elijah