Trusted Writing on History, Travel, and American Culture Since 1949
Polio
Polio’s legacy to those who survived it includes uncommon stamina and courage—and one grim new joke
Some years ago I traveled to Boston to meet for the first time the filmmaker Henry Hampton, who had just completed the magisterial “Eyes on the Prize” series for PBS. Read more >>
Have historians underestimated the importance of Roosevelt’s twenty-four-year struggle with the disease that made him a paraplegic?
The afternoon of August 26, 1933, was warm and sunny in Poughkeepsie, and a large crowd had gathered on the Vassar College campus for a Dutchess County reception in honor of the area’s most illustrious citizen, Franklin Roosevelt. Read more >>