RSS Feeds

Earth Science

Space Science

Life Science

Fields of Scientific Study

Nanotechnology

Cancer

Definitions of The Fields of Scientific Study

American Experience: The Polio Crusade | DVD

List Price:

~~$24.99~~

Price:

$22.49

You Save:

$2.50 (10%)

Available:

Usually ships in 24 hours

Binding:

DVD

Rating:

Run Time:

60 minutes

Format:

NTSC

Studio:

PBS (Direct)

Number of Discs:

Release Date:

April 07, 2009

Sales Rank:

66,548th

EDITORIAL REVIEWS

Product Description
Based in part on David Oshinsky's Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Polio: An American Story, this one-hour film chronicles a decades-long crusade, fueled by the bold leadership of a single philanthropy and its innovative public relations campaign, and features a bitter battle between two scientists and the breakthrough of a forgotten woman researcher.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 3.0 based on 1 review)

Eradicating An Illness by Jeffery Mingo (Homewood, IL USA)

3 Stars
May 06, 2009
Polio has gone from an illness that paralyzed myriad people, especially children, to a disease that is largely gone from the populace. This documentary tells how it happened. When I think "polio," I free-associate to FDR and he does show up. I learned about the creation of the March of Dimes. (However, I must say that the work doesn't speak of the organization's change of focus once a vaccine had been made.) They speak of a tension between Doctors Salk and Sabin which reminded me of the tensions between WEB DuBois and Booker T. Washington. This work covers the 1940s and early 1950s, a time before the Civil Rights Movement and the Brown v. Bd. of Ed. decision. Of course, the virus does not think about race, but this was a very segregated time in the country. Thus, I am very surprised at how diverse this documentary was. One sees Black kids as well as white ones and often time mingling with each other. Remember Charles Drew died because a hospital wouldn't admit a Black man, even though he was a renown scientist. So this dynamic in the documentary was an eye-opener. I hope I don't misquote the documentary, but it did seem that a vaccine save those who weren't sick and did nothing for those who were already ill. This is not about a cure for the infected. That dynamic plays a huge role in the research of distressing illness of our time. Currently, the whole world is afraid of the spread of swine flu. Fearing the spread of a disease, especially one harming children, will feel very urgent to modern viewers, even as the footage here is black-and-white and from a half century ago.

SIMILAR PRODUCTS

	American Experience - Influenza 1918 Starring: David McCullough, David Ogden Stiers, Joe Morton, Linda Hunt, Will Lyman Also With: Katy Mostoller (Producer), Michael Rossi (Producer), Rocky Collins (Producer), Rocky Collins (Writer), Tracy Heather Strain (Producer), Henry Hampton (Writer) As the nation mobilized for war in the spring of 1918, ailing Private Albert Gitchell reported to an army hospital in Kansas. He was diagnosed with the flu, a disease about which doctors knew little. Before the year was out, America would be ravaged by a flu epidemic that killed 675,000 people--more than died in all the wars of this century combined--before disappearing as mysteriously as it began.
	A Paralyzing Fear Starring: Olympia Dukakis Directed By: Nina Gilden Seavey {Emmy Award Winner!} {Erik Barnouw Prize for Best Historical Film of the Year} {Golden Apple Award, National Education Media Network} {Golden Hugo Award, International Film & Video Communications} {International Monitor Award, International Tele Production Society} {Peer Award, Washington Film and Video Council} Seldom has society come full circle in the cycle of a disease-- from illness, to epidemic, to cure. Polio is the 20th century's most notable exception....
	In Search of the Polio Vaccine (History Channel) (A&E DVD Archives) Starring: Artist Not Provided
	NOVA - Typhoid Mary: The Most Dangerous Woman in America Starring: Artist Not Provided Interweaving biography and social history, The Most Dangerous Woman in America tells the extraordinary story of Mary Mallon, better known as Typhoid Mary. She gained this notoriety by being the first person in North America to be identified as a healthy carrier of typhoid fever. Despite her indignant protests of innocence, she was incarcerated for years on an island in New York's East River. Mary Mallon's saga throws into vivid relief the emerging science of public health and the social,...
	American Experience: The Great Fever Starring: David McCullough, David Ogden Stiers, Joe Morton, Linda Hunt, Will Lyman Also With: Katy Mostoller (Producer), Michael Rossi (Producer), Rocky Collins (Producer), Rocky Collins (Writer), Tracy Heather Strain (Producer), Henry Hampton (Writer) In 1900, Major Walter Reed, Chief Surgeon of the U.S. Army, led a team to Cuba to investigate yellow fever, the disease that had killed an estimated 100,000 people in the US in the 19th century alone. Reed and his team tested the radical theories of Carlos Finlay, a doctor who believed that mosquitoes spread the disease. This program documents the heroic efforts of Reed's team, some of whom put their own lives at risk to verify Finlay's theory.