Stephen E. Mawdsley

In Selling Science, medical historian Stephen E. Mawdsley recounts the untold story of the first large clinical trial to control polio, using 55,000 healthy children. The value of the proposed experiment was questioned by many prominent health professionals, but as Mawdsley points out, compromise and coercion moved it forward. He shows that at a time when most Americans trusted scientists, their mutual encounter under the auspices of conquering disease was shaped by politics, marketing, and at times, deception.