TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – David M. Oshinsky, winner of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for his book, “Polio: An American Story,” will speak at The University of Alabama as part of the Frances S. Summersell Center for the South’s lecture series on Wednesday, Sept. 26 at 4 p.m. in 205 Gorgas Library.
Oshinsky, Jack S. Blanton History Chair at the University of Texas at Austin, will discuss “Polio: A Look Back at 20th Century America’s Most Successful Public Health Crusade,” based on his Pulitzer-winning book.
The book describes America’s polio panic in the 1940s and 1950s by detailing the race between two researchers, Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin, to find the cure as quickly as possible. The book also describes important financial contributions made by President Franklin Roosevelt and the March of Dimes campaign on public awareness of the disease.
Oshinsky, only the second UT-Austin faculty member to win a Pulitzer, has also written other award-winning books, including “A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy” and “Worse than Slavery: Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice.”
For more information, contact Dr. Kari Frederickson, director of the Frances S. Summersell Center for the Study of the South and UA associate professor of history, at 205/ 348-1862.
Contact
C.J. McCormick or Linda Hill, UA Public Relations, 205/348-8325, lhill@ur.ua.edu
Source
Dr. Kari Frederickson, director of the Frances S. Summersell Center for the Study of the South and UA associate professor of history, 205/348-1862