Polio Voices: An Oral History From the American Polio Epidemics and Worldwide Eradication Efforts (review)

Harvard professor Julie Silver, M.D., collected numerous oral histories of the polio epidemic during her directorship of the Polio Oral History Project. She teams up with Muhlenberg College historian Daniel Wilson, Ph.D., to provide a rich account of the struggles of polio survivors. Silver is the author and editor of more than a dozen books and teaches courses on publishing memoirs and creative nonfiction. Wilson has focused his scholarly work on the history of polio since the early 1990s, publishing three books and numerous articles on the topic. Both authors highly value the role of personal narratives, which is quite evident in Polio Voices.

Men and women who had polio, their family members, as well as healthcare providers and people who have participated in the polio eradication effort were interviewed with a semi-structured protocol. Polio Voices is divided into eight chapters with topics entitled, for example, "Polio's Impact on the Family," "Living with Polio," and "Post-Polio Syndrome." Each chapter opens with two to three pages of historical background on the topic, with the rest consisting of "lightly edited transcripts" (11). The book also contains a number of photographs of the narrators featured in the text which adds to the personal stories being told.

The book is extremely well organized. The way the individual stories were broken up into their relevant chapters made this coherent and easy to read. Additionally, each narrator was listed in the index so the reader can easily piece individual stories together. One particularly powerful juxtaposition was the placement of two narratives in the first chapter. Jonathan Salk, the son of Jonas Salk, inventor of the first polio vaccine, discusses his father's work and his personal struggle with the Cutter incident, which was when a number of children actually contracted polio from the vaccine. This account by Jonathan Salk was immediately followed by an account of one of the children involved in the Cutter incident, who had contracted polio from Jonathan's father's vaccine (31-33).

The introduction and first chapter, titled "The Epidemic Years," provides a history of the polio virus, early treatment efforts, and vaccine development. The first half of the twentieth century was marred by polio epidemics throughout the U.S. The authors successfully portray the level of fear regarding this illness. One narrator tells of the quarantine signs on their front door and how a sheriff tried to get him to stop playing outside, yet backed away from the child when he drew near (22). Excerpts also tell a myriad of hospital experiences, ranging from kind loving physicians to abusive medical staff. One woman describes being punished by being banished to the cellar of the hospital on visiting day, rendering her unable to see her father who was waiting upstairs for her (43). Chapter 3 on polio's impact on the family was particularly heart-wrenching. Tales of financial difficulties, depression, abuse, and changing family dynamics upon returning home from lengthy hospital stays are especially vivid.

However, this book also has a message of hope and triumph over illness. The chapters on the legacy of volunteerism, the impact of polio on disability rights in America, and polio's effect on medical advances show the results of survivors' perseverance and hard work. One narrator who had not contracted polio but who had been paralyzed from a spinal cord injury describes his appreciation for the work of polio survivors that engendered disabilities legislation and accommodations (120).

This text is wonderfully rich and is highly recommended. I have only one criticism. Because the authors present a context for the narratives in the beginning of each chapter, the chapters seem to end abruptly. This is most noticeable on the final page of the book. Page 155 ends with a narrative and there is no conclusion by the authors at the end. However, this is a minor point...