I want to explain in advance at this in writing, weve examined various disasters from different perspectives, first of all, the psychological and physical problems that jamestown, disaster sermons and responses to fires hurricanes and epidemics in colonial america. Famine suffered by the dawn and party and root to california, irish immigrants flaming the potato famine in the ability to create new lives in this country. Disaster tourism, johnston flood of 1889 the impact of the triangle shirt lays factory in new york city and disaster arts that emerged from the 1930s dust bowl. So today we are discussing david oceans Pulitzer Prizewinning book, polio an american story, you all received questions that i posted and i am really interested in this topic, because i also teach someone are in the 19 fifties and of course that is one so much of this book takes place and i think just looking at polio really reveals so many different issues that affected that decade. Before starting though, i 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 would be guthrie wrote. A novel called house of earth. It doesnt get a very good review, obviously you get some attention, we will be pleased to know that the introduction was by historian named douglas brinkley, and joining deep. So i think theyre trying to sell copies. Superstar on the cover okay. I divide the discussion today into four sort of major themes, we cant cover all of those but i thought the most interesting was looking at philanthropy, medical Research Scientists and their various personalities, which are interesting and also the ethical issues. So with that lets start the way we always do, when we look at anything we have to read and that is first of, all who is david ocean ski . A professor history professor in a distinguish scholar and residents at nyu. Fairly reputable, we would say he probably knows what hes talking about. He won a cartwright award, from Columbia UniversityMedical Center in 2010 known for his research and so that helps him get credit before he definitely adds credibility. We even had Something Else. On the Pulitzer Prize award in 2006. Winning a Pulitzer Prize is substantial, thats for sure. Overall, what did you think of his writing, his scholarship is research, were you impressed . I was impressed by the thoroughness of his research and how he kind of went above and beyond researching the relationship searching the scientists and between the politicians in the scientists in the foundation, i think there was a lot he pretty went as much as he couldve, there was a lot one way to talk to robert kara, i took him seven years to read his book instead of two. It kind of felt like the same way. Right, very much indepth. Really a nice variety in terms of people interviewed. I thought there was a good balance between information in kind of story in the book. I found a very readable i thought originally, when we had to read the whole book it would take me or the long time but i found myself getting really into it and i thought it was easy to read and really interesting, i think he did a good job of making it accessible and not so academic. 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, not only a political aspect with the topics of science, which is an interesting point of view for us to read. Something really different. We hadnt done that before. What do you think . Did he deserve the Pulitzer Prize . Should be vote. What do you think . I think thumbs up, right . Obviously a man of some repute is certainly did a good job on this book. The first recorded, well recorded outbreak of polio took place in rockland, fremont, 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 picks pick town, in brooklyn, new york. And that spread across the northeast and some 6000 people died from that outbreak. Ocean ski has an interesting comment or thoughts to make about why these epidemics suddenly broke out, why it is, in the nate 19th and early 20th century, suddenly we see these so many more people affected by this disease. 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 sanitation in cleaning up cities and with that, as the youth were is exposed to microorganisms that carry disease and bacteria, they were more likely to be infected and not have an immune system to certain to be diseases. And what does that mean in terms of children not being exposed to the germs and bacteria . What happens . He says when you got polio as a young child it was a lesser dose or it was an as effective, you dont have as many side effects from it, so as you get older is stronger its better to get it as a young kid, is a much milder case. Particularly, when you really young, you have your mother isnt antibodies to withstand the impact of those diseases and so that was something that was sort of traditionally happened in america but certainly everybody is watching him cleaning clothes better sanitation i dont know if its an argument for not watching hands these days, i dont think so but something it happened in this country to make people more susceptible to polio. So by the early 20th century, americans were in a panic about polio. And what was so frightening about that disease . What was different about polio . That had been true deserves is before this . I think back to what made it so frightening was it was primarily children who got it. And it wasnt, they saw no reason for why certain got it. It wasnt just children poor communities it was children all across the board. Maybe even more so enriching clean areas. And theres no cause or nuclear. No known cause. For a disease like cholera, this would be traditionally among the poor. Those who were drinking bathwater those who are living in filthy conditions. Polio hits everybody. There was no class issue when it came to polio, and also, initially it hit heavily on children and was called infantile paralysis. Because it hit children typically sort of between the ages of one and three. That is going to change but nevertheless, here it is affecting innocent children. What else was different about this disease . It accelerated very quickly. All of a sudden one warning a child would wake up with a stiff neck and a fever and a couple of hours or a day later, they could be losing feeling in their limbs and i think that was terrifying for a lot of parents because it was just like that. And no idea how the child had gotten the disease. Were you going to add Something Else . I was gonna Say Something along the same lines but i was also going to say today recently came out with the antibiotic of penicillin but that had no effect on polio because it was a viral infection. Right. A viral infection was kind of new to that age with influenza. This is viral infection and not bacterial so penicillin did absolutely no good. Anything else that was unique and different about this disease . Some of the later cases, they said it could wipe out the entire family. Thats one thing they had five kids that died one day after each other. And there were cases of that. Terrifying to parents. Totally terrifying so this was something that you can just imagine being a parent and having a very, very young child suddenly succumb to this horrible, horrible disease. Nobody knew what caused it, nobody knew how to curate, and initially what was the response if a child got polio or a few feared polio in your community, how did people react . What are they do with it . They were quarantined and they shut down public spaces where children would gala gathered likes to impose a movie theaters. Indeed, rightly understood. It was contagious. It did spread from person to person so they understood that this was a contagious disease and i can tell you stories of friends of mine at least, who will remember in childhood, when they couldnt go to the local public swimming pool. Movie theaters were closed were literally you were forced to stay out of any situation that involves a whole lot of people, particularly areas where children gathered. The author also shows the very sorry state of medical research in the late 19th century. This was, people almost distrusted medical research and of course, no one could conceive of a federal government supporting medical research. 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 happened 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 19 century. If you really wanted to good medical education he went abroad. If you really wanted to engage in any kind of research, you want to europe. But all that changed in 1902, when what happened . What major donor . We changed all of that . Rockefeller . John do rockefeller. He had millions he was convinced to give this money to found a research institute, not a hospital not a medical school but an actual Actual Research institute. This, of course, is the Rockefeller Institute which is in new york city. If you go to duke city, you see the beautiful browns of this building, its right in the east river and high fifties or low sixties, this is something new. This is very exciting. And the director was this institute and he was a man named simon flexing or. And held this position for 40 years, what did you get . Did you get any sense of his personality . The man who headed this institute . Rather. Had strong. And pulled it was his domain if youre going to research polio you had to do it his way so he seems to be rather controlling there is one way for Polio Research and that was his. He was an incredible autocrat, 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 nearly one of the many diseases studied at the Rockefeller Institute. Now of course, the major event that really put polio on the map suddenly get a lot more attention it was a personal tragedy and that was franklin dylan roosevelt. And coming in 1921. Here was a 39 year old man, hes not an infant, from a very well to do family. Hes a very robust man. And suddenly, he succumbed to polio at his familys summer home on campus bellow island. How it the author explain how someone like roosevelt got polio . What had happened in his past or recently to him to explain this . He says that he was extremely vulnerable because as a child, he had many illnesses he also became exhausted in stretch. And that led to immune system going down, around a bunch of other people couldve contracted the disease from. Anybody know anything about roosevelts childhood . He was very wealthy so he separated the mainstream American Population which meant that he didnt contract common childhood diseases, which wouldve races immune system. In the real world, he was much more susceptible. His mother sarah was a conch extremely controlling individual and the oversaw his childhood, and he was protected from everything and everybody. She was quite something. That was exactly what was not good for child, not having the normal exposure to diseases that most people did. As you said, this was a unique childhood and a very privileged upbringing. Anything else about roosevelt that would help explain, he was exhausted. Where have you been . Right before he went to camp the below island . Yeah the boy scouts convention. He was at a boy scouts meeting just days before, demand a bunch of young boys and thats probably where he contracted polio. Wasnt he battling some sex scandal . He had been in washington d. C. And he had been for three days under tremendous pressure going through the congressional investigation and questioning, getting absolutely exhausted. Its called the navy scandal and the homosexual scandal. Pressure, tension. And then apparently, i dont know if he fell off the boat or if you actually went swimming. But he went into this really cold water, i dont know if any of you have tried to swim up in northern maine or somewhere like that its absolutely frigid. He fell into the water and then he stayed in his bathing suit. And so obviously, he got chilled. And this, again, interfered with his immune system. Basically, lower his resistance. So suddenly, we have this energetic, robust, 39 year old man who woke up and was paralyzed. And from that point forward, of course, Franklin Roosevelt never walked alone, he always wore metal braces. Usually he was assisted by somebody. He managed to walk to put him to give a speech. Typically, he was sitting, whenever you see a picture of him, typically, he was sitting down. And he was often in pain. His mother felt that the best path for roosevelt to follow would be to come home to hide park, she would take care of him, and he could leave leave this lovely quiet life. But his wife ellen are convinced him otherwise. She felt the very thing for was roosevelt to reenter public life to really try and get back to some kind of normal life if at all possible. Fortunately, 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 lived in the 19 thirties and forties. And there, like, no, no, he wasnt paralyzed. He wasnt. They really did not know, and zeroes about was determined, not to make a big deal of this, not to become this sympathetic character and also there was a stigma about being handicapped. 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 a 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. This is where the water boils up and theres all these minerals on the water and saw warm and wonderful. By the way, did any of you see the movie called warm springs, with Cynthia Nixon and Kenneth Braun . I thought. Anyway, it was a good movie roosevelt traveled there and he got in the waters and this was just wonderful. It was really soothing and it was exactly what he needed. So much to his mothers dismay, he spent two thirds of his inheritance buying is property. When he realized is that this is exactly what he needed and also realized the other Polio Victims need the same. And so out of this, he formed what was called warm springs foundation. And its face of course was in warm springs, georgia. He built his own cottage and every summer, he would spend weeks they are just enjoying these wonderful warm mineral waters. Well, in 1928, life changed again for roosevelt. Ill 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 candidates. And after much soul searching, who was about the greek. They didnt win that. In fact, it was a pretty cataclysmic outcome. Herbert hoover one, as we know, but roosevelt became governor of new york, and he served two to your 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. 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 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 gets polio, he realized that he could go win and be such a fundamental change in the government that other people who were down and up with the depression could do the same thing. The stigma didnt need to be. There didnt really agree with the fact that you get it from everyone, but it proves that just because you have a physical handicap doesnt mean you cant go on do impressive things. And there were people who knew about it. And all the more that they would admire this man and see what he had been able to accomplish, a man who is basically handicapped by polio. It was quite incredible. Roosevelt, before he had polio, was pretty much called a lightweight. I wouldnt say he was a playboy, but he was not regarded as a man of great substance. Just this wealthy man what had every privilege in life. I think both of those are really important. The idea that he could overcome this, it wasnt going to, in a sense, caused him to not do his best in any respect. He was going to become a great president despite the disease. And empathy. That was a huge issue. When he ran against Herbert Hoover, Herbert Hoover seemed like a man who had no connection with what people were suffering. And here was a man who had really suffered physically, and could identify with whatever problem somebody was suffering. All right. So obviously, roosevelt being in albany as governor of new york, then of course, occupying the white house, suddenly he is extremely busy. He has no time to really Pay Attention to his foundation down in warm springs so he appoints Basil Oconnor to take charge of it. And they hire a Public Relations man. They hire someone to