Heather Green Woolen, The Polio Years in Texas: Battling a Terrifying Unknown, College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 2009. Pp. xiv +248. dollar19.95. ISBN 978 1 6034 4165 0.

摘要

The history of poliomyelitis in the United States is an especially well researched episode in the twentieth-century history of medicine. The myriad of issues raised by this paralysing virus prompted the publication of a wide range of books and articles in past decades-from histories of national polio research to detailed analyses of individual polio narratives. Heather Green Wooten's new book, The Polio Years in Texas contributes towards a better understanding of polio in the USA by interweaving these dimensions in the Texan social fabric. Wooten argues that polio in Texas is an important case study in two major ways: on the one hand the state showed a remarkably high incidence rate compared to the national scale; on the other hand, Texas pioneered polio research and treatment in the American Southwest. Furthermore, she claims that studying the experience of polio in this Southern state serves as a good example to follow the effects of the disease on the field of medicine in general. To achieve this, Wooten zooms in, skilfully peeling away the layers of the national history of the disease to get to that of the state, a town, a particular hospital and the individual. Wooten begins each chapter with a clear overview of a particular episode of the national history of polio, based on secondary literature, then goes on to assess its impact in Texas. As such, she looks at events like the March of Dimes or the development of the Salk vaccine and how they formed the lives of children, parents, doctors and politicians. Wooten bases this local history on thorough archival work, medical records, newspaper articles and oral history interviews. Finally, she widens her view again, to see how distinctive local interpretations and practices influenced and interacted with the overall American experience of polio.