The Last Children’s Plague

Poliomyelitis, Disability, and Twentieth-Century American Culture

Richard J. Altenbaugh (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

277 Seiten

2015 | 1st ed. 2015
Palgrave Macmillan (Verlag)
978-1-137-52784-4 (ISBN)

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Poliomyelitis, better known as polio, thoroughly stumped the medical science community. Polio's impact remained highly visible and sometimes lingered, exacting a priceless physical toll on its young victims and their families as well as transforming their social worlds. This social history of infantile paralysis is plugged into the rich and dynamic developments of the United States during the first half of the twentieth century. Children became epidemic refugees because of anachronistic public health policies and practices. They entered the emerging, clinical world of the hospital, rupturing physical and emotional connections with their parents and siblings. As they underwent rehabilitation, they created ward cultures. They returned home to occasionally find hostile environments and always discover changed relationships due to their disabilities. The changing concept of the child, from an economic asset to an emotional commitment, medical advances, and improved sanitation policies led to significant improvements in child health and welfare. This study, relying on published autobiographies, memoirs, and oral histories, captures the impact of this disease on children's personal lives, encompassing public-health policies, hospitalization, philanthropic and organizational responses, physical therapy, family life, and schooling. It captures the anger, frustration, and terror not only among children but parents, neighbors, and medical professionals alike.

Richard J. Altenbaugh is a Visiting Fellow at St. Edmund s College, University of Cambridge, UK and Professor Emeritus at Slippery Rock University, USA.

Why Children, Disease, and Disability? 1. The American Plague 2. Many Yellow Caskets 3. After Treatment 4. Wheelchair Gladiators 5. Home Sweet Home 6. The Cripples 7. Polio's Legacy

Erscheint lt. Verlag	15.9.2015
Zusatzinfo	XXIX, 277 p.
Verlagsort	Basingstoke
Sprache	englisch
Maße	155 x 235 mm
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
	Medizin / Pharmazie ► Gesundheitswesen
	Medizin / Pharmazie ► Medizinische Fachgebiete ► Geriatrie
	Studium ► Querschnittsbereiche ► Infektiologie / Immunologie
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
ISBN-10	1-137-52784-6 / 1137527846
ISBN-13	978-1-137-52784-4 / 9781137527844
Zustand	Neuware