- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: University of Chicago Press; illustrated edition edition (3 May 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0226901033
- ISBN-13: 978-0226901039
- Product Dimensions: 24.1 x 16.1 x 3 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 4,492,026 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Living with Polio: The Epidemic and Its Survivors
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"A polio survivor himself, Daniel Wilson has scoured America's polio narratives in order to distill the essential polio experience from the onset of the disease through to the late effects. In focusing on those individuals who have felt driven to recount their experiences of coming to terms with differing degrees of disability, he provides valuable insights into the history not just of a disease but of a generation - those postwar, pre-Salk vaccine baby boomers who succumbed to the annual epidemics of what was still sometimes called 'infantile paralysis.' " - Tony Gould, author of A Summer Plague: Polio and its Survivors"
Review
"Wilson succeeds admirably on his own terms - taking ownership of the disease from medics (and from the academics and theoreticians) and giving it back to the patients who actually experienced it.... Daniel Wilson's book is a sobering indictment of the treatment of disabled people in mid-century America that can be read with profit, and, it is to be hoped, without complacency, by any practitioner today." - Seamus Sweeney, Times Literary Supplement "[Daniel J. Wilson] has done an admirable job of assembling more than 150 first-person accounts into a coherent narrative.... In the America of 2005, new cases of polio are extraordinarily rare; the World Health Organization hopes to eradicate it completely by 2008. But Mr. Wilson reminds us that more than half a million Americans are still living with its consequences." - Gordon Haber, New York Sun "For readers who... did not live during the prevaccine period, Living with Polio provides an excellent survey of the stories of those who had the misfortune of being struck by the disease." - Mark Pallansch, Science"
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6 reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Living with Polio
28 Jun 2005
Format:Hardcover
This book is well written, as you would expect from a professor of medical history. The author's experience with polio makes this more than a historical exercise, it is a very personal journey. It brought back my memories of cold, itchy "hot packs", the love-hate relationship with our P/Ts. This book brought a tear to my eyes. It brought back memories of pain but also of victories. Every relative of a polio survivor should read this, to understand where we came from and where we are.
Tom
Tom
23 of 25 people found the following review helpful
With tears and laughter
1 April 2005
Format:Hardcover
Dr. Wilson has written an illuminating history of American attitudes towards polio, and how over the years it has been the polio victims themselves who have made strides on behalf of disabled people everywhere. They did not depend on others, they went ahead and did it themselves. Wilson's book is both depressing and inspiring, but it is never dull and it is one of the best books of the season.
I guess "victims" is the wrong word; that dates me back to the time when polio was the scariest thing in a Cold War childhood, and the scares were everywhere: "don't got swimming," "don't go to the movies," "avoid that crippled boy for he might have the virus." Then in the mid-50s Dr. Salk's vaccine put polio in the past for most of us, for the lucky ones who were spared, but huge numbers of children all around the world had been affected and have been "living with polio" for the past fifty years. Ironically, a large percentage of these have been stricken with so called "post polio syndrome," a further debilitation that might ensue twenty, thirty, or forty years after the original outbreak, and these poor souls are faced with trying to convince young doctors that they are sick all over again, and it is the case with many doctors that you might be a neurologist and very sharp in your field but you might not ever have faced an active case of polio, so you're going to be 100 per cent useless in the case of PPS. Many patients report having to talk themselves blue in the face trying to convince the mindless MDs that their symptoms were not "all in their heads."
Wilson gathers the testimony of dozens of survivors. They are the bravest bunch of people you'll read about all year. No matter what their trials and tribulations, they needed bravery to survive the tears of intolerance, of reduced or eliminated movement, and the ignorant Western policy of non-accommodation so that for many children with polio, they were actively discouraged from attending school or even from going to a dance or on a date. It sounds crazy, but Wilson presents case after case of human beings whose lives were thwarted by social policy, not to mention a biological disaster. And yet there is room for laughter in these stories, and hope too.
Wilson is not only a skilled writer and sociologist but his book is sort of autobiographical too, for he is one of the polio survivors, and too he is coping with PPS right now. The pictures, photos and illustrations are all top-notch. You will find this book works in two ways, as an account of physical difficulty, and as well, it is a guidebook on a spiritual journey towards completion and the whole.
I guess "victims" is the wrong word; that dates me back to the time when polio was the scariest thing in a Cold War childhood, and the scares were everywhere: "don't got swimming," "don't go to the movies," "avoid that crippled boy for he might have the virus." Then in the mid-50s Dr. Salk's vaccine put polio in the past for most of us, for the lucky ones who were spared, but huge numbers of children all around the world had been affected and have been "living with polio" for the past fifty years. Ironically, a large percentage of these have been stricken with so called "post polio syndrome," a further debilitation that might ensue twenty, thirty, or forty years after the original outbreak, and these poor souls are faced with trying to convince young doctors that they are sick all over again, and it is the case with many doctors that you might be a neurologist and very sharp in your field but you might not ever have faced an active case of polio, so you're going to be 100 per cent useless in the case of PPS. Many patients report having to talk themselves blue in the face trying to convince the mindless MDs that their symptoms were not "all in their heads."
Wilson gathers the testimony of dozens of survivors. They are the bravest bunch of people you'll read about all year. No matter what their trials and tribulations, they needed bravery to survive the tears of intolerance, of reduced or eliminated movement, and the ignorant Western policy of non-accommodation so that for many children with polio, they were actively discouraged from attending school or even from going to a dance or on a date. It sounds crazy, but Wilson presents case after case of human beings whose lives were thwarted by social policy, not to mention a biological disaster. And yet there is room for laughter in these stories, and hope too.
Wilson is not only a skilled writer and sociologist but his book is sort of autobiographical too, for he is one of the polio survivors, and too he is coping with PPS right now. The pictures, photos and illustrations are all top-notch. You will find this book works in two ways, as an account of physical difficulty, and as well, it is a guidebook on a spiritual journey towards completion and the whole.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Living, Not Dying, With Disease
3 May 2005
Format:Hardcover
As a person born after the invention of the polio vaccines, polio was not the scourge of my childhood, in fact, I knew practically nothing about the disease until reading this book.
"Living with Polio" tell relates the stories of people who contacted polio and their struggles with infection and polio treatments, their triumphs in life and love, and their experiences with PPS (Post-Polio Syndrome). No detail of these experiences is spared and a true and clear picture emerges of what it must have been like to live with this disease.
Of particular interest to me, a student of human sexuality education, was the inclusion by the author of the survivors sexuality. Although stricken with polio, these people did not loose their sexuality when paralysis set in and it was very refreshing to see that aspect of the experience included.
"Living with polio" was not only an informative read, it was a well written and engaging one. Highly Recommended!
"Living with Polio" tell relates the stories of people who contacted polio and their struggles with infection and polio treatments, their triumphs in life and love, and their experiences with PPS (Post-Polio Syndrome). No detail of these experiences is spared and a true and clear picture emerges of what it must have been like to live with this disease.
Of particular interest to me, a student of human sexuality education, was the inclusion by the author of the survivors sexuality. Although stricken with polio, these people did not loose their sexuality when paralysis set in and it was very refreshing to see that aspect of the experience included.
"Living with polio" was not only an informative read, it was a well written and engaging one. Highly Recommended!
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