New York Street cleaner wearing mask to check the spread of the influenza epidemic in 1918. | Bettmann Archive

Lessons on restricting public spaces and social interaction in the age of coronavirus Life in America?s cities has transformed?quickly, radically, and dramatically?in the last week in ways we?re still comprehending. Politico called it ?the Great American shutdown,? and with increasingly strict orders being enacted to protect the country from the further spread of the novel coronavirus, including the Bay Area?s recent shelter-in-place declaration, it seems obvious that the nation is entering uncharted territory.
In many ways that?s true. But the great slowdown of American life recalls the quarantines, public-meeting bans, and shutdowns that came about during the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic. A physician of the era, George Price, famously called influenza a ?destroyer and teacher,? and according to an article by Dr. Nancy Tomes, the most important of its lessons was ?the difficulties inherent in controlling a deadly, fast-moving epidemic in communities knit closely together by mass transportation, mass media, mass consumption, and mass warfare.? Between 1890 and 1918, the Industrial Revolution, technological evolution, and the swift expansion of cities in the U.S. created the template for modern life, and the basics of urban living?including public schools, public transportation, and public entertainment?that we now take for granted. And when the 1918-1919...