polio... whoa, whoa, whoa, polio... *
Jun. 14th, 2007 06:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snugglekittyToday, I finished reading Polio: An American Story by David Oshinsky. This book was recommended to me by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
srl - but with more free time on my hands, I managed to get through it more quickly than he did. I never thought that I would find a book about the history of Polio deeply fascinating. Wow. That man can write. I am not normally a history buff but this book was extremely engaging and difficult to put down. Oshinsky did a wonderful job of portraying the personalities involved in the epic, from FDR to Foundation officials to the scientists working on the vaccine. The politics involved in this story - one might even say, the drama - struck me as impressive. My other favorite thing about the book was the way Oshinsky put polio in context. Gender, class, conceptions of disability, race, the Cold War, the media - no aspect is left unturned. It's a great exposition of a time in the country when many of our parents were growing up. It was wonderful to read a piece of nonfiction that was so difficult to put down. It's short, but it packs a punch.
I highly recommend it. Five stars.
ETA: This frees me up to start another piece of nonfiction. Right now it's a tossup between Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea and Meeting the Great Bliss Queen.
*If you're puzzled by the subject line, it came from a very very silly short at this year's night of women's shorts at the MFA GLBT film festival.
srl - but with more free time on my hands, I managed to get through it more quickly than he did. I never thought that I would find a book about the history of Polio deeply fascinating. Wow. That man can write. I am not normally a history buff but this book was extremely engaging and difficult to put down. Oshinsky did a wonderful job of portraying the personalities involved in the epic, from FDR to Foundation officials to the scientists working on the vaccine. The politics involved in this story - one might even say, the drama - struck me as impressive. My other favorite thing about the book was the way Oshinsky put polio in context. Gender, class, conceptions of disability, race, the Cold War, the media - no aspect is left unturned. It's a great exposition of a time in the country when many of our parents were growing up. It was wonderful to read a piece of nonfiction that was so difficult to put down. It's short, but it packs a punch.I highly recommend it. Five stars.
ETA: This frees me up to start another piece of nonfiction. Right now it's a tossup between Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea and Meeting the Great Bliss Queen.
*If you're puzzled by the subject line, it came from a very very silly short at this year's night of women's shorts at the MFA GLBT film festival.