A Paralyzing Fear: The Story Of Polio In America

An engaging, solidly researched and thoroughly informative history of polio in America. Poliomyelitis, a viral infection that attacks the central nervous system and often results in paralysis and death, had existed for thousands of years in other parts of the world, but was relatively unknown in America until the late 19th century. Director Nina Seavey not only charts the chronology of "the crippler" from the first major American epidemic of 1916 to the '50s race for a vaccine, but also chronicles the shifting cultural perceptions of polio and its survivors. She's done an astonishing amount of research and brings to life what could have been a musty round-up of fac...