Emphasis on research and writing. Over the semester, weve examined various disasters. First of all the psychological and physical problems at jamestown, disaster sermons in responses to fires, hurricanes and epidemics in colonial america, famine suffered by the donner party, the potato family, disaster of tourism, the impact of the triangle shirt waste factory and disaster art that emerged from the 1930s dust bowl. Today were discussing polio an american story. You all received questions that i posted and im enterintereste this topic because i teach a seminar in the 1950s. Looking at polio 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 Woodie Guthrie wrote. It doesnt get a very good review. But obviously he gets some attention. Youll be pleased to know that the introduction was by a historian named Douglas Brinkly and johnny depp. I think theyre trying to sell copies by having a superstar on the cover. I divided the discussion today into four major themes. We cant cover all of the books, but i thought the most interesting were looking at medical research, scientists, and their various personalities, which are interesting, and also the ethical issues. With that, lets start the way we always do and that is first of all who is david . A professor at the university of texas in austin and a distinguished scholar and resident at nyu. Fairly reputable. I saw that he won the cartwright prize from Columbia UniversityMedical Center in 2010 and that was for his research. He had some creditability. Were you going to add Something Else . He won the Pulitzer Prize award. What did you think of his writing, his scholarship, his research . Were you impressed . I was impressed by the thoroughness of his research how i think he kind of went above and beyond researching the relationships between the scientists and between, you know, the politician and is the scientists and the foundation. I think there was a lot he sort of like went pretty much as far as he could. It was a lot like what when we talked to robert taro, it took him seven years to write his book. It felt the same way. Right. Very much in depth. And a really a nice variety in terms of people he interviewed, caroline. I found it very readable, when we had to read the whole book, i found myself getting into it and i thought it was easy to read and interesting. I think he did a good job of making it accessible and not so academic. I think this is one of the great examples of how history is really stories. And its a very, very well told story. 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, but the politics of science which was an interesting way for us to read. Something really different. We havent done that before. So what do you think . Did he deserve the Pulitzer Prize . Shall we vote . [ laughter ] obviously a man of some repute and did a great job on this book. The first recorded outbreak of polio took place in vermont in 1894. 123 people will caught polio. There was another outbreak in 1907 and then a major outbreak in 1916 that begin in pig town in brooklyn, new york, and that spread across the northeast and some 6 though people died from that outbreak. He has an interesting comment or thoughts to make about why these epidemics sudden broke out, why it is in the late 19th and early 20th century, suddenly we see these so many more people affected by this disease. And what does he say . How does he time 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 sanitation 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 affected and not having a immune system to certain diseases. What does that mean in terms of children not being exposed to the germs and bacteria . What happens . If you got polio as a young child, it was a lesser dose, you didnt have many effects from it. When youre really young, you have your mothers antibodies to withstand the impact of those diseases. And so that was all something that those sort of traditionally happened in america. Suddenly everybody is washing hands, cleaning clothes, better sanitation. I dont know if its an argument for not washing hands, i dont think so. But still, something that 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 hadnt been true of decides before this. I think it was primarily children who got it. It was children all across the board, maybe even more so in rich and clean areas. And theres no cause or cure or no known cause or for like a disease like cholera, that would be with the poor. Polio hit everybody. And also initially it hit very, very Young Children. Hence, it was called infin tile payroll sis because it hit children between the ages of 1 and 3. Thats going to change. But nevertheless here it is affecting innocent children. What else was different about this disease . It accelerated very quickly. It was as if all of a sudden one morning, a child would wake up with a stiff neck or a fever and they could be losing feeling in their limbs and i think that was terrifies for a lot of parents. It was just like that. 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 lines. They recently came out with the antibiotic of penicillin but that had no effect on polio because it was a viral infection. A viral infection was new to that age, like influenza. This is not bacterial. So penicillin did no good. Anything else that was unique about this disease . They said it could wipe out the entire family. There were families that lost all of their children. This is something that you can imagine being a parent and having a very, very young child succumb to this horrible, horrible disease. So nobody knew what caused it. Nobody knew how to cure it. And initially what was the response, if you 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. Rightly understood. It was contagious. It spread from person to person. They understood this was a contagious disease. I can tell you stories of friends of mine at least who remember in childhood when they couldnt go to the local public swimming pool, movie theaters were closed, where literally you were forced to stay out of any situation that involved a lot of people, particularly areas were children gathered. He shows the sorry state of medical research in the early 19th century. People almost distrusted medical research. And of course no one could conceive of the 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 had to be funded by individuals or by foundations. But it really wasnt generating that kind of response. And for many doctors, this was true in the mid to late 19th century. If you really wanted a good medical education, you went abroad. If you wanted to engage any kind of research, you went to europe. All that changed in 1902 when what happened . What major donor changed all of that . Rockefeller. Right. He had millions. What is he going to do with his money . And indeed he was convinced to give this money to found a research institute, not a hospital, not a medical school, but a 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, 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. This was something new. This was very exciting. And the director of the man who was appointed director of this institute was a man who held this position for 40 years. And what did you get . Did you get any sense of his personality, the man who headed this institute . He rather had how about removing the rather. Headstrong. Polio was his domain. If you were going to research polio, you had to do it his way. And he was an incredible autocrat. But he ran this institute with an iron fist in a way. This was his thing. This institute took on many, many diseases. Polio is 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 gained a lot more attention was of course a personal tragedy and that was Franklin Delano roosevelt coming down with polio. Here is a 39yearold, hes not an infant, from a very welltodo family, a very robust man, and suddenly he succumbed to polio at his family summer home. Now, how is it explained 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 didnt have many illnesses and as he was growing up he became very active. He was traveling the world. And he also became exhausted and stressed with the amount of work that he had. And that led to, like, being his immune system going down and being, of course, around a bunch of other people who he could have contracted the disease from. Anybody know anything about roosevelts childhood . He was very wealthy so he was separated from the mainstream American Population which meant that he wasnt he didnt contract common childhood diseases which would have raised his immune system. So once he went out in the real world, he was much more susceptible. Yes, his mother, sarah, 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, that was just exactly what was not good for a child. Not having the normal exposure to diseases that most children did. As you said, very this was, you know, a sort of unique childhood in this very, very privileged, privileged upbringing. Anything else about roosevelt that would help explain he was exhausted, okay, where had he been right before he went to the island . The boy scouts convention. Yes, he was at a boy scout meeting just days before. Met a bunch of young boys and thats probably where he contracted polio. What else . 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 these congressional investigations and questioning. So, again, getting absolutely exhausted. Were you going to add Something Else . It was regarding homosexuals. Pressure, tension, et cetera. And i dont know if he fell off the sailboat or went swimming, but he went into this really cold water, i dont know if any of you have tried to swim in northern maine, its frigid. He fell into the water and he stayed in his bathing suit. He got chilled and this, again, interfered with his immune system and lowering his resistance. 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 usually was he was assisted by somebody, if he ever managed to walk to a podium to give a speech. Typically he was sitting. That was usually whenever you see a picture of him, typically he was sitting down and his mother felt the best path for roosevelt to follow would be to come home to hyde park, she would take care of him, and he could leave this lovely quiet life. But his wife convinced him otherwise. She thought the best thing was to reenter public life, to really try to get back to some kind of normal life if at all possible. And fortunately, that is what he did. Its amazing how many people in this country never realized that roosevelt was handicap, that he had had polio and that he could not walk. Ive had students do oral histories of people who lived in the 1930s and 40s and theyre like, no, he wasnt paralyzed. They really did not know. And so roosevelt 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. 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 Basil Oconnor. They started a new york law firm. And roosevelt heard about this kind of decreped spa called warm springs, georgia. There are all of these minerals in the water and its warm in wonderful. Did you ever see the movie called warm springs. I saw it. It was a good movie. Roosevelt traveled there and he got in the wonderful and this was wonderful. It was soothing and exactly what he needed. Much to his mothers display, he spent twothirds of his inheritance buying this property. Because what he realized is that this is exactly what he needed and also realized that other Polio Victims needed the same. And so out of this he formed the Warm Springs Foundation and its base was in warm springs, georgia. He built his own cottage and every summer he would spend weeks there just enjoying these wonderful warm mineral waterers. 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. And so after much soul searching, roosevelt agreed. They didnt win that. It was a cataclysmic outcome. Herbert hoover won. But roosevelt became governor of new york and served two terms as governor of new york. In 1932, of course, the 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 campaign. His Campaign Song was happy days are here again. And of course he won the presidency and took office in 1933. Now, many 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 have did you get out of the book in terms of how, you know what polio did for roosevelt as a man, as a person . Did it have a positive impact, a negative impact . I think someone said there was a stigma against polio. He realized if he could go in and be the change in the government who other people could do the same thing. The stigma didnt need to be there. I didnt agree with the fact that he hid it from everyone. But it proved that just because you have a physical handicap, doesnt mean you cant do wonderful things. 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 who had had every privilege in life. But historians feel that polio had a huge impact on him. Here we are in the heart of the depression. Here is a man who has gone through this incredibly, you know, horrible situation of having to, you know, live through he did live through, fortunately, this horrible disease. And he emerged what would you emer imagine he had emerged with. Millions of americans are suffering economically. How might that affect roosevelt and who he was as a person . I think it made him more empathetic to people suffering. Hes able to empathize with feeling less than and inferior to people around you and i think it also kind of gave him this inner drive to succeed and to prove to people that polio was not going to define him and that just because he was physically handicapped, i didnt mean he was incapable of being a good president and an effective leader. I think both of those are important. The idea that he could overcome this and be it wasnt in a sense going to cause 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 is a man who suffered physically and could identify with whatever problem somebody was suffering. All right. Obviously, roosevelt being in albany as governor of new york, occupying the white house, suddenly hes extremely busy and he has no time to 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 take charge of fundraising and create this incredible foundation. And the first fundraising events were what . It used roosevelt effectively . The Birthday Balls. Right. And what was the Birthday Ball . Big parties or fund raisers on his birthday, drive in a bunch of no dimes yet. Were still into the fancy balls. Drive in a lot of money for the foundation. Yeah, celebrate roosevelt, his birthday and you had these fancy balls at fancy hotels. And they were all across the country which was quite amazing to think about. It was all across the country. But theres a problem actually, there were a couple of problems with those balls that became apparent within a few years. Why might people begin to think that maybe these Birthday Balls arent a very good idea . I think people took issue as using him as a figure head since he was the president and it seemed like he should remain neutral because he was in an important political office. What was his Politi