Polio: An American Story
by David M. Oshinsky
List Price:
Our Price: $9.35
You Save: $7.60 (45%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.92 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: David M. OshinskyBrand: Baker & Taylor
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-09-01
ISBN: 0195307143
Number of pages: 368
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Book Reviews of Polio: An American Story
Book Review: A Tale of Men and Microbes
Summary: 5 Stars
Microbes shaped our destiny since the precambrian era or earlier. Our DNA is the historical evidence.
We have not changed much genetically in the last couple of millennia, but we have had a rapid cultural evolution that enabled us to come up with virology as a medical science.
The book is a snapshot of American social and medical history around the middle of the last century. "There were no shopping malls or motel chains or felt-tip pens. Tobacco companies placed cigarette ads in medical journals."
A prominent victim, President Roosevelt, played a major role in the fight against Polio.
Prejudices surface up when plagues hit home. Some ethnic groups were targeted.
We learn about the biographies of Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin , the two heroes whose feud over killed-virus versus live-virus vaccines continues even after their death.
There are plenty of factoids on philanthropy, fund raising, grant policy and McCarthyism.
For example, Harry Weaver introduced the percentage payment of the indirect costs involved in grants as an incentive for research grants.
There were also the ethical questions of testing vaccines on crippled children. When Koprowski ( another hero in the search for vaccine )
" published his results in 1952, his use of the word "volunteer", which included two children so helpless they had to be fed the vaccine through stomach tubes, prompted the British medical journal The Lancet to note:
One of the reasons for the richness of the English language is that the meaning of some words is continually changing. Such a word is "volunteer". We may yet read in a scientific journal that an experiment was carried out with twenty volunteer mice, and that twenty other mice volunteered as controls."
The world is not yet free from polio. Cultural barriers and prejudices in certain Third World regions
prevent the total eradication. The WHO set a goal for 2008.
This is a recommended reading for every concerned global citizen. The next viral pandemic will certainly come, probably a more eminent threat than global warming, terrorism or nuclear war.
20th Century Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in 20th Century Books
Route 66: The Mother Roadby Michael Wallis
St. Martin's Griffin; Published: 1992-09-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $24.85
Sweet and Low: A Family Storyby Rich Cohen
Picador; Published: 2007-03-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.27
Price in other shops:
When We Get to Surf City: A Journey Through America in Pursuit of Rock and Roll, Friendship, and Dreamsby Bob Greene
St. Martin's Press; Published: 2008-05-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $0.60
Price in other shops:
Gone to Texas: A History of the Lone Star Stateby Randolph B. Campbell
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2003-08-07; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $155.33
The Dodgers Move Westby Neil Sullivan
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 1989-06-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $18.93
Price in other shops:
American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bushby Kevin Phillips
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2004-09-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.95
Price in other shops:
Dereliction of Duty: Johnson, McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnamby H. R. McMaster
Harper Perennial; Published: 1998-05-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.36
Price in other shops:
My Father the Spy: An Investigative Memoirby John H. Richardson
Harper Perennial; Published: 2006-08-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops:
My Father the Spy: An Investigative Memoirby John H. Richardson
Harper; Published: 2005-08-02; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $1.59
Price in other shops:
A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906by Simon Winchester
PBS; Harper; Published: 2005-10-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.51
Price in other shops:
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
Typhoid Mary: Captive to the Public's Healthby Judith Walzer Leavitt
Beacon Press; Published: 1997-07-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $18.00
Price in other shops:
Sources in the History of Medicine: The Impact of Disease and Traumaby Robin L. Anderson
Prentice Hall; Published: 2006-02-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $56.97
Price in other shops:
Gracefully Insane: Life and Death Inside America's Premier Mental Hospitalby Alex Beam
PublicAffairs; Published: 2003-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.22
Price in other shops:
The Burdens of Disease: Epidemics and Human Response in Western Historyby J.N. Hays
Rutgers University Press; Published: 2010-02-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $24.08
Price in other shops:
The Cholera Years: The United States in 1832, 1849, and 1866by Charles E. Rosenberg
University of Chicago Press; Published: 1987-07-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.00
Price in other shops:
Southern Crossing: A History of the American South, 1877-1906by Edward L. Ayers
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 1995-01-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $26.01
Price in other shops:
Citizen 13660by Mine Okubo
University of Washington Press; Published: 1983-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.43
Price in other shops:
The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern Worldby Steven Johnson
Riverhead Trade; Published: 2007-10-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.99
Price in other shops:
Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-82by Elizabeth A. Fenn
Hill and Wang; Published: 2002-10-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.81
Price in other shops:
The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in Historyby John M. Barry
Penguin Audio; Penguin Books; Published: 2005-10-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.95
Price in other shops: