Nielsen, Kim E. (Author)
Beacon Press
Physical Details: xxiii + 216 pp.
Language: English
Covers the entirety of U.S. disability history, from pre-1492 to the present. Disability is not just the story of someone we love or the story of whom we may become; rather it is undoubtedly the story of our nation. It places the experiences of people with disabilities at the center of the American narrative. In many ways, it's a familiar telling. In other ways, however, it is a radical repositioning of U.S. history. By doing so, the book casts new light on familiar stories, such as slavery and immigration, while breaking ground about the ties between nativism and oralism in the late nineteenth century and the role of ableism in the development of democracy. This work pulls from primary-source documents and social histories to retell American history through the eyes, words, and impressions of the people who lived it. As the author, a historian and disability scholar argues, to understand disability history isn't to narrowly focus on a series of individual triumphs but rather to examine mass movements and pivotal daily events through the lens of varied experiences. Throughout the book, he illustrates how concepts of disability have deeply shaped the American experience from deciding who was allowed to immigrate to establishing labor laws and justifying slavery and gender discrimination. Included are narratives of blinded slaves being thrown overboard and women being involuntarily sterilized, as well as triumphant accounts of disabled miners organizing strikes and disability rights activists picketing Washington. This work fundamentally reinterprets how we view our nation's past: from a stifling master narrative to a shared history that encompasses us all.
...MoreReview Pruitt, Lisa J. (2014) Review of "A Disability History of the United States". Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences (pp. 341-343).
Similar Citations
Book
Chris Mounsey;
(2019)
Sight Correction: Vision and Blindness in Eighteenth-Century Britain
(/isis/citation/CBB700021344/)
Thesis
Hamraie, Aimi;
(2013)
What Can Universal Design Know? Bodies as Evidence in Disability-Accessible Design
(/isis/citation/CBB001562887/)
Book
Jaipreet Virdi;
(2020)
Hearing Happiness: Deafness Cures in History
(/isis/citation/CBB945172024/)
Article
Ellis, Jason;
(2013)
“Inequalities of Children in Original Endowment”: How Intelligence Testing Transformed Early Special Education in a North American City School System
(/isis/citation/CBB001202082/)
Thesis
Petrick, Elizabeth;
(2012)
Fulfilling the Promise of the Personal Computer: The Development of Accessible Computer Technologies, 1970--1998
(/isis/citation/CBB001567399/)
Article
Linker, Beth;
(2013)
On the Borderland of Medical and Disability History: A Survey of the Fields
(/isis/citation/CBB001214256/)
Book
Lara Freidenfelds;
(2020)
The Myth of the Perfect Pregnancy: A History of Miscarriage in America
(/isis/citation/CBB477937706/)
Book
Brian Craig Miller;
(2015)
Empty Sleeves: Amputation in the Civil War South
(/isis/citation/CBB078316403/)
Book
Aimi Hamraie;
(2017)
Building Access: Universal Design and the Politics of Disability
(/isis/citation/CBB935113847/)
Thesis
Shuko Tamao;
(2020)
Memories of Asylums: A Narrative Examination of Postwar State Hospital Experiences
(/isis/citation/CBB741533565/)
Chapter
Howell, Joel D.;
Hayward, Rodney A.;
(2003)
Writing Willowbrook, Reading Willowbrook: The Recounting of a Medical Experiment
(/isis/citation/CBB001211587/)
Book
Sarah F. Rose;
(2017)
No Right to Be Idle: The Invention of Disability, 1840s–1930s
(/isis/citation/CBB247390759/)
Thesis
Byrom, Bradley Allen;
(2004)
A Vision of Self Support: Disability and the Rehabilitation Movement in Progressive America
(/isis/citation/CBB001562082/)
Article
Johnson, Russell L.;
(2011)
Introduction: Health and Disability
(/isis/citation/CBB001232062/)
Book
David Gissen;
(2023)
The Architecture of Disability: Buildings, Cities, and Landscapes beyond Access
(/isis/citation/CBB078956133/)
Book
Petrick, Elizabeth;
(2015)
Making Computers Accessible: Disability Rights and Digital Technology
(/isis/citation/CBB001422605/)
Article
Serlin, David;
(2012)
On Walkers and Wheelchairs: Disabling the Narratives of Urban Modernity
(/isis/citation/CBB001212859/)
Book
Blume, Stuart S.;
(2010)
The Artificial Ear: Cochlear Implants and the Culture of Deafness
(/isis/citation/CBB001031571/)
Article
Mauldin, Laura;
(2014)
Precarious Plasticity: Neuropolitics, Cochlear Implants, and the Redefinition of Deafness
(/isis/citation/CBB001421190/)
Book
Claire L. Jones;
(2017)
Rethinking Modern Prostheses in Anglo-American Commodity Cultures, 1820-1939
(/isis/citation/CBB758244747/)
Be the first to comment!