I just wanted to explain in advance that this advance that this history course looks at responses to disasters in American History, with an emphasis on research and writing. Over the semester, weve examined various disasters from different perspectives. First of all, the psychological and physical problems at jamestown. Disaster sermons and responses to fires, hurricanes, and epidemics in colonial america. Famine suffered by the donner party en route to california. Irish immigrants fleeing the potato famine and the ability to create new lives in this country. Disaster tourism at the johnstown flood of 1889. The impact of the triangle shirt waist factory fire in new york city and disaster art that emerged from the 1930s dust bowl. So, today we are discussing David Oshinskys Pulitzer Prizewinning book polio an american story. You all received questions i posted. And im really interested in this topic because i also teach a seminar on the 1950s, and thats when so much of this book takes place. I think just looking at polio really reveals so many different issues that affected that decade. Before starting, though, i just want to mention one thing in light of what we were talking about in terms of dust bowl art, i was reading the new york review of books and there is a review of a novel that Woody Guthrie wrote, a novel called house of earth. It doesnt get a very good review, but, obviously he gets , attention. The introduction was by a historian named Douglas Brinkley and johnny depp, so i think theyre trying to sell copies by having a superstar on the cover. Ok, i divided the discussion in four major themes. We cant cover all of oshinskys books, but i thought the most interesting were looking at philanthropy, medical research, scientists and their various personalities, which are interesting, and also the ethical issues. Lets start with the way we always do when looking at anything we have to read and that is, first of all, who is David Oshinsky . Yeah . Katie . The professor at the university of texas at austin and a distinguished scholar in residence at nyu. Prof. Mcmillen ok. So, fairly reputable we would say, yeah, probably knows what hes talking about. I saw that he won the cartwright award, cartwright prize, from Columbia UniversityMedical Center in 2010 and that was for his research into the history of polio, so also helps add credit before even reading his book. Prof. Mcmillen definitely add some credibility. Were you going to add Something Else . He also won the Pulitzer Prize award in 2006. Prof. Mcmillen winning a Pulitzer Prize is substantial thats for sure. Overall what did you think of his writing, his scholarship, his research . Were you impressed . Elizabeth . I was impressed by the thoroughness of his research. I think he kind of went above and beyond researching the relationships between the scientists and between, you know, the politicians and the scientists and the foundation. I think there was a lot. He sort of went pretty much as far as he could. It was a lot like when we talk to robert how it took him seven , years to write his book instead of two, it kind of felt like the same way. Prof. Mcmillen yeah, right. Very much indepth and really a nice variety in terms of people he interviewed. Caroline . I thought it was a good balance between information and kind of story in the book. I found it very readable, i thought, originally when we had , to read the whole book it would take me a really long time but i found myself getting into it and i thought it was easy to read and interesting, so i thought he did a good job of making it accessible and not so academic. Prof. Mcmillen this is one of the great examples of how history is really stories and this is a very well told story on multiple levels. Carly . He did a good job describing the historical point of it as well as the scientific point, but also the kind of politics of each point, like, not only a political aspect but the science, which was an interesting point of view. Prof. Mcmillen something very we havent done that before. Yeah, right. What do you think . Did he deserve the Pulitzer Prize . What do you think . I think thumbsup, right. Obviously man of some repute and , a certainly did a great job on this book. The first well recorded outbreak of polio took place in rutland, vermont, in 1894. 123 people there caught polio. There was another outbreak, substantial outbreak in 1907 and then a major outbreak in 1916 that began in pigtown, in brooklyn, new york and that spread across the northeast and some 6,000 people died from that outbreak. Oshinsky has an interesting comment or thoughts to make about why these epidemics suddenly broke out. Why it is in the late 19th and then in the early 20th century, suddenly we see these so many more people affected by this disease. And what does he say . How does he tie in the germ theory of disease with his comments about the outbreak of those polio epidemics . He describes it as the age of cleanliness, so america became so preoccupied with hygiene and cleaning up the cities and the youth werent as exposed to microorganisms that carried disease and bacteria. So, they were more likely to be infected and not have an immune system to certain diseases. Prof. Mcmillen and carry that forward. Somebody else. What does that mean in terms of children not being exposed to the germs and bacteria, what happens . When you got polio as a young child it was a lesser dose or it wasnt as effective, you didnt have as many side effects, when you get it older, you get it stronger like chicken pox and its better to get it as a kid its a much milder case. Prof. Mcmillen when you are really young, you have your mothers antibodies to withstand the impact of those diseases. That was something that sort of traditionally happened in america but suddenly everybodys washing hands and cleaning clothes and better sanitation. I dont know if its an argument for not washing hands, i dont think so. But something happened in this country more susceptible to polio. What was so frightening about that disease . What was different about polio that hadnt been true of diseases before this . I think the fact that made it so frightening is that it was primarily children who got it and they found no reason for why certain children got it, it wasnt children in poor communities. It was children all across the board maybe even more so in rich and clean areas. Prof. Mcmillen right. Theres no cause or no cure. No known cause or no known cure. Prof. Mcmillen for a disease like colorado, this would be among the poor, those who are drinking bad water and living in filthy conditions. Polio hit everybody, okay . There was no class issue when it came to polio. Also, initially it hit very, very Young Children, hence, you know, it was called infantile. Paralysis because it hit children typically sort of between the ages of 1 and 3. That is going to change. But, nevertheless, here it is affecting innocent children. What else was different about this disease . It just accelerated very quickly. It was as if all of a sudden the child would wake up with a stiff neck and a fever and a couple hours or a day later they could be losing feelings in their limbs. I think that was terrifying for a lot of parents because, you know, it was just like that. Prof. Mcmillen yeah, and no idea how the child had gotten the disease. Were you going to add Something Else . I was going to say along the same line, but i was also going to say they recently came out with the antibiotic of penicillin, but that had no effect on polio because it was a viral infection. Prof. Mcmillen right. A viral infection was kind of, like, new to that age with influenza. Prof. Mcmillen it is viral and not bacterial so penicillin did absolutely nothing. Anything else unique and different . Cases,ome of the later they said it could wipe out the entire family. One family had five kids that died one day after each other. Prof. Mcmillen and there were cases of that. Terrifying to parents. Prof. Mcmillen totally terrifying. So, this was, you know, something that you can just imagine being a parent and, you know, having a very, very young child suddenly succumb to this horrible, horrible disease. So, nobody knew what caused it. Nobody knew how to cure it. Initially, what was the response, you know, if a child got polio or if you feared polio in your community, how did people react . What did they do initially . What did they do . They were quarantined and they shut down public spaces where children would gather, like swimming pools and movie theaters. Prof. Mcmillen indeed, rightly understood. It was contagious, it did spread from person to person, so they understood it was a contagious disease and i can tell you stories of friends of mine at least who, you know, remember in childhood when they couldnt go to the local public swimming pool, you know, movie theaters were closed, where literally you were forced to stay out of any situation that involved a whole lot of people, particularly areas where children gathered. Oshinsky also shows the very sorry state of medical research in the late 19th century. This was people almost distrusted, you know, medical research. And, of course, no one could conceive of the federal government supporting medical research, you know, we didnt have the National Institute of health. We didnt have the centers for disease control. This was something medical research if it happened was something that had to be funded by individuals or by foundations. But it really wasnt generating that kind of response. And for many doctors, certainly this was true in the mid to late 19th century, if you really wanted a good medical education, you went abroad. If you really wanted to engage in any kind of research, you went to europe. In 1902,that changed when what happened . What major donor changed all of that . Yeah. Reagan . Rockefeller. Prof. Mcmillen yeah, john d. Rockefeller, right. He had millions, what is he going to do with his money . Indeed, he was convinced to give this money to found a research institute, not a hospital, not a medical school, but an Actual Research institute and this, of course, is the Rockefeller Institute which is in new york , city. In fact, if you go to new york city, i mean, you can see this beautiful, beautiful, these beautiful grounds and this building. Its right on the east river i think in the high 50s or low 60s. So, this was something new. This was very exciting and the director of the man who was appointed director of this institute was a man named simon flexler, who held the position for 40 years. What did you get . Did you get a sense of his personality, the man who headed this institute . Was he rather headstrong . Prof. Mcmillen yes, ok. How about removing the rather. Headstrong. And, like, it polio was kind of his domain and if you were going to research polio you had to do it his way or do another area, so he seemed to be rather controlling, i think, there was one way for Polio Research and it was his. Prof. Mcmillen he was an incredible autocrat, but, i mean, he ran this institute with an iron fist in a way. This was his thing. This institute, of course, took on many, many diseases, polio was merely one of the many diseases studied at the Rockefeller Institute. Now of course, the major event , that really put polio in sort of on the map, when it suddenly gained a lot more attention was, of course, a personal tragedy and that was Franklin Delano roosevelt coming down with polio in 1921. Here was a 39yearold man. Hes not an infant from a very well to do family, a very robust man. And suddenly he succumbed to polio at his familys summer home on Campobello Island. How does oshinsky explain how someone like roosevelt got polio . What had happened in his past or recently to explain this . Well, he says that he was extremely vulnerable because as a child, he didnt have many illnesses and then as he was growing up, he became very active. He was traveling the world. He also, like, became exhausted and stressed with the amount of work that he had. Prof. Mcmillen ok. And that led to his immune system going down and being, of course, around a lot of other people who he could have contracted the disease from. Prof. Mcmillen ok. Anybody know anything about roosevelts childhood . He was very, like, wealthy prof. Mcmillen extremely. So he was separated from the mainstream American Population, which meant that he wasnt he didnt contract, like, common childhood diseases which would have raised his immune system, so once he went out in the real world, he was much more susceptible. Prof. Mcmillen his mother was an extremely controlling individual and she basically oversaw his childhood. She made sure he was totally protected from everything and everybody. She was quite something. But anyway, of course, that was just exactly what was not good for a child, you know, not having the normal exposure to diseases that most children did. So as you said, this was, you know, a sort of unique childhood and a very, very privileged, privileged upbringing. Anything else about roosevelt that would help explain . He was exhausted, ok. Where had he been right before he went to Campobello Island . Pardon . The boy scouts convention . Prof. Mcmillen yeah. He was at a boy scouts meeting just days before, met a whole bunch of young boys and thats probably where he contracted polio. What else . Wasnt he battling some, like, sex scandal allegations . Prof. Mcmillen he had been in d. C. Ngton. He had been for three days under, you know, tremendous pressure going through these congressional investigations and questioning, so, again, getting absolutely exhausted. Were you going to add Something Else, josh . I was going to call it was called the lemay scandal and prof. Mcmillen and pressure, tension, et cetera. And then apparently, i dont know if he fell off the boat, sailboat, or if he actually went swimming, but he went into this really cold water. I dont know if any of you tried to swim up in northern maine or somewhere like that, but its absolutely frigid. But he fell in the water and he stayed in his bathing suit and obviously he got chilled and this, again, you know, interfered with his immune system and basically lowering his resistance. So, suddenly, we have this energetic, robust, 39yearold man woke up and was paralyzed. And from that point forward, of course, Franklin Roosevelt never walked alone. He always wore metal braces. He was assisted by somebody if he ever managed to walk to a podium to give a speech. Typically, though, he was sitting, that was usually, whenever you see a picture of him, typically, he was sitting down, and he was often in pain. And his mother felt the best the best path for roosevelt to follow would be to come home to hyde park, she would take care of him, and he could lead this lovely quiet life. But his wife eleanor convinced him otherwise. She felt the very best thing was for roosevelt, no, to reenter public life to really try on get back to some kind of normal life if at all possible and fortunately, of course, that is what he did. Its amazing how many people in this country never realized that roosevelt was handicapped, that he had had polio and that he could not walk. Ive had students do oral histories of people who 11th in andived in the 1930s 1940s, and theyre, like, no, no, he wasnt paralyzed. He wasnt. They really did not know, and so roosevelt was determined, you know, not to make a big deal of this, not to become this sympathetic character and also there was a stigma about being handicapped, you know, youre not robust, youre not in a sense a whole person. And so he didnt he really didnt want people to know and he did a great job of really hiding this fact. Well, he returned to normal life. He partnered with a young man named basel oconnor, they started a new York Law Firm and then shortly thereafter, roosevelt heard about this kind of decrepit sort of seedy spa down called warm springs, georgia. Ok, so, this is where the waters boil up and theres minerals in the water and its all warm and wonderful. By the way, did any of you see the movie warm springs with Cynthia Nixon . I thought. Anyway, it was a good movie. Roosevelt traveled there and got in the waters. This was just wonderful. It was really soothing, it was exactly what he needed. So, much to his mothers dismay, he spent two thirds of his inheritance buying this property because what he realized is this is exactly what he needed and also realized that other Polio Victims needed the same. So out of this, he formed what was called the warm springs foundation. And its base, of course, was in warm springs, georgia. He built his own cottage and every summer he would spend weeks there, just enjoying these wonderful warm mineral waters. Well, in 1928 life changed again for roosevelt. Al smith, the governor of new york, the catholic who ran for president in 1928 against Herbert Hoover, asked roosevelt to be his Vice President ial candidate. After much soul searching, roosevelt agreed. They didnt win that. Herbert hoover won as we know, but roosevelt became governor of new york, and he served two twoyear terms as governor of new york. Well, in 1932, of course, Democratic Party decided roosevelt would be the perfect candidate to run against Herbert Hoover. The heart of the depression. Americans were really suffering. Roosevelt ran an incredible upbeat campaign. His Campaign Song was happy days are here again even though nobody was too happy at that point. And of course, he won the presidency and took office in 1933. Now, a number of scholars have looked at roosevelt and his character and feel that polio had an incredible impact on who he was as a person. What did you get out of oshinski oshinsky in terms of what polio did for roosevelt as a man, as a person . Did it have a positive impact, negative impact . I think so much that there was a stigma against polio, he realized if he could go in and be such a fundamental change in the government that other peo