Oshinsky, David M.

Studies the legal issues associated with "Furman versus Georgia," the Supreme Court case that resulted in the abolishment of most of the capital punishment laws in the United States in 1972.

Bellevue Hospital, on New York City's East Side, occupies a colorful and horrifying place in the public imagination: a den of mangled crime victims, vicious psychopaths, assorted derelicts, lunatics, and exotic-disease sufferers. In its two and a half centuries of service, there was hardly an epidemic or social catastrophe?or groundbreaking scientific advance?that did not touch Bellevue.

Describes the internal and external forces that launched Joseph McCarthy on his political career and carried him to national prominence.

Presents a comprehensive survey of the polio epidemic of the 1950s and the discovery of the Salk and Sabin vaccines, and describes the devastating results of the disease, methods of treatment, fund-raising efforts, and more.

Documents the polio terror in the early 1950s and the competitive race to create a vaccine and a cure. Explores whether polio was a real or media-induced epidemic. Details the competition between Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin to find a cure, and explains how the government conducted the largest public-health experiment involving a million school children when the Salk vaccine was created. Describes the creation of a national foundation to raise money for research and rehabilitation.