Book ID: CBB945172024

Hearing Happiness: Deafness Cures in History (2020)

unapi

Virdi-Dhesi, Jaipreet (Author)


University of Chicago Press


Publication Date: 2020
Physical Details: 328
Language: English

At the age of four, Jaipreet Virdi’s world went silent. A severe case of meningitis left her alive but deaf, suddenly treated differently by everyone. Her deafness downplayed by society and doctors, she struggled to “pass” as hearing for most of her life. Countless cures, treatments, and technologies led to dead ends. Never quite deaf enough for the Deaf community or quite hearing enough for the “normal” majority, Virdi was stuck in aural limbo for years. It wasn’t until her thirties, exasperated by problems with new digital hearing aids, that she began to actively assert her deafness and reexamine society’s—and her own—perception of life as a deaf person in America.   Through lyrical history and personal memoir, Hearing Happiness raises pivotal questions about deafness in American society and the endless quest for a cure. Taking us from the 1860s up to the present, Virdi combs archives and museums in order to understand the long history of curious cures: ear trumpets, violet ray apparatuses, vibrating massagers, electrotherapy machines, airplane diving, bloodletting, skull hammering, and many more. Hundreds of procedures and products have promised grand miracles but always failed to deliver a universal cure—a harmful legacy that is still present in contemporary biomedicine. Weaving Virdi’s own experiences together with her exploration into the fascinating history of deafness cures, Hearing Happiness is a powerful story that America needs to hear.

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Reviewed By

Review John Vickrey Van Cleve (2022) Review of "Hearing Happiness: Deafness Cures in History". Journal of American History (pp. 415-416). unapi

Review Katherrine Healey (2022) Review of "Hearing Happiness: Deafness Cures in History". Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences (pp. 258-260). unapi

Review Katherrine Healey (2022) Review of "Hearing Happiness: Deafness Cures in History". Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences (pp. 258-260). unapi

Review Octavian E. Robinson (2021) Review of "Hearing Happiness: Deafness Cures in History". Endeavour: Review of the Progress of Science (p. 100755). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB945172024/

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Authors & Contributors
Blume, Stuart S.
Martin Atherton
Jepsen, Kim Sune
Iain Hutchison
Booth, Katie
Frank Mondelli
Concepts
Disabilities; disability; accessibility
Deafness
Auditory perception
Disability technology
Medical technology
Hearing aids
Time Periods
20th century
19th century
Modern
21st century
20th century, early
18th century
Places
United States
Great Britain
Prague (Czechia)
Netherlands
Poland
Japan
Institutions
American Telephone and Telegraph Company
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