Collecting together essays written by an international set of contributors, this book provides an important contribution to the emerging field of disability history. It explores changes in understandings of deformity and disability between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries, and reveal the ways in which different societies have conceptualised the normal and the pathological. Through a variety of case studies including: early modern birth defects, homosexuality, smallpox scarring, vaccination, orthopaedics, deaf education, eugenics, mental deficiency, and the experiences of psychologically scarred military veterans, this book provides new perspectives on the history of physical, sensory and intellectual anomaly. Examining changes over five centuries, it charts how disability was delineated from other forms of deformity and disfigurement by a clearer medical perspective. Essays shed light on the experiences of oppressed minorities often hidden from mainstream history, but also demonstrate the importance of discourses of disability and deformity as key cultural signifiers which disclose broader systems of power and authority, citizenship and exclusion. The diverse nature of the material in this book will make it relevant to scholars interested in cultural, literary, social and political, as well as medical, history.

The first book to attempt to provide a framework for analyzing disability through the ages, Henri-Jacques Stiker's now classic A History of Disability traces the history of western cultural responses to disability, from ancient times to the present. The sweep of the volume is broad; from a rereading and reinterpretation of the Oedipus myth to legislation regarding disability, Stiker proposes an analytical history that demonstrates how societies reveal themselves through their attitudes towards disability in unexpected ways. Through this history, Stiker examines a fundamental issue in contemporary Western discourse on disability: the cultural assumption that equality/sameness/similarity is always desired by those in society. He highlights the consequences of such a mindset, illustrating the intolerance of diversity and individualism that arises from placing such importance on equality. Working against this thinking, Stiker argues that difference is not only acceptable, but that it is desirable, and necessary. This new edition of the classic volume features a new foreword by David T. Mitchell and Sharon L. Snyder that assesses the impact of Stiker’s history on Disability Studies and beyond, twenty years after the book’s translation into English. The book will be of interest to scholars of disability, historians, social scientists, cultural anthropologists, and those who are intrigued by the role that culture plays in the development of language and thought surrounding people with disabilities.

This is the first book-length study of physical disability in eighteenth-century England. It assesses the ways in which meanings of physical difference were formed within different cultural contexts, and examines how disabled men and women used, appropriated, or rejected these representations in making sense of their own experiences. In the process, it asks a series of related questions: what constituted ‘disability’ in eighteenth-century culture and society? How was impairment perceived? How did people with disabilities see themselves and relate to others? What do their stories tell us about the social and cultural contexts of disability, and in what ways were these narratives and experiences shaped by class and gender? In order to answer these questions, the book explores the languages of disability, the relationship between religious and medical discourses of disability, and analyzes depictions of people with disabilities in popular culture, art, and the media. It also uncovers the ‘hidden histories’ of disabled men and women themselves drawing on elite letters and autobiographies, Poor Law documents and criminal court records. The book won the Disability History Association Outstanding Publication Prize in 2012 for the best book published worldwide in disability history and also inspired parts of the Radio 4 series, ‘Disability: A New History’, on which the author was historical adviser. The series gained 2.6 million listeners when it first aired in 2013.

This volume is a major contribution to the field of disability history in the ancient world. Contributions from leading international scholars examine deformity and disability from a variety of historical, sociological and theoretical perspectives, as represented in various media. The volume is not confined to a narrow view of ‘antiquity’ but includes a large number of pieces on ancient western Asia that provide a broad and comparative view of the topic and enable scholars to see this important topic in the round. Disability in Antiquity is the first multidisciplinary volume to truly map out and explore the topic of disability in the ancient world and create new avenues of thought and research.

Readers interested in fairy-tales studies and disability studies will appreciate this careful reading of the Grimms' tales.

Introduces key terms, concepts, debates, and histories for Disability Studies Keywords for Disability Studies aims to broaden and define the conceptual framework of disability studies for readers and practitioners in the field and beyond. The volume engages some of the most pressing debates of our time, such as prenatal testing, euthanasia, accessibility in public transportation and the workplace, post-traumatic stress, and questions about the beginning and end of life. Each of the 60 essays in Keywords for Disability Studies focuses on a distinct critical concept, including “ethics,” “medicalization,” “performance,” “reproduction,” “identity,” and “stigma,” among others. Although the essays recognize that “disability” is often used as an umbrella term, the contributors to the volume avoid treating individual disabilities as keywords, and instead interrogate concepts that encompass different components of the social and bodily experience of disability. The essays approach disability as an embodied condition, a mutable historical phenomenon, and a social, political, and cultural identity. An invaluable resource for students and scholars alike, Keywords for Disability Studies brings the debates that have often remained internal to disability studies into a wider field of critical discourse, providing opportunities for fresh theoretical considerations of the field’s core presuppositions through a variety of disciplinary perspectives. Visit keywords.nyupress.org for online essays, teaching resources, and more.

A glimpse into the struggle of the disabled for identity and society's perception of the disabled traces the disabled's fight for rights from the antebellum era to present controversies over access.

"What a marvelous and amazing textbook. Drs. Marini, Glover-Graf and Millington have done a remarkable job in the design of this highly unique book, that comprehensively and very thoughtfully addresses the psychosocial aspects of the disability experience. These highly respected scholars have produced a major work that will be a central text in rehabilitation education for years to come." From the Foreword by Michael J. Leahy, Ph.D., LPC, CRC Office of Rehabilitation and Disability Studies Michigan State University "This is an excellent book, but the best parts are the stories of the disabled, which give readers insights into their struggles and triumphs." Score: 94, 4 Stars--Doody's Medical Reviews What are the differences between individuals with disabilities who flourish as opposed to those who never really adjust after a trauma? How are those born with a disability different from individuals who acquire one later in life? This is the first textbook about the psychosocial aspects of disability to provide students and practitioners of rehabilitation counseling with vivid insight into the experience of living with a disability. It features the first-person narratives of 16 people living with a variety of disabling conditions, which are integrated with sociological and societal perspectives toward disability, and strategies for counseling persons with disabilities. Using a minority model perspective to address disability, the book focuses on historical perspectives, cultural variants regarding disability, myths and misconceptions, the attitudes of special interest and occupational groups, the psychology of disability with a focus on positive psychology, and adjustments to disability by the individual and family. A wealth of counseling guidelines and useful strategies are geared specifically to individual disabilities. Key Features: Contains narratives of people living with blindness, hearing impairments, spinal cord injuries, muscular dystrophy, polio, mental illness, and other disabilities Provides counseling guidelines and strategies specifically geared toward specific disabilities, including "dos and don'ts" Includes psychological and sociological research relating to individual disabilities Discusses ongoing treatment issues and ethical dilemmas for rehabilitation counselors Presents thought-provoking discussion questions in each chapter Authored by prominent professor and researcher who became disabled as a young adult

This book offers a global angle to Disability History by exploring global locations as disparate as the Caribbean, Kenya, Mauritius, Natal and Poland as well as taking new approaches to Britain and the US. Global Histories of Disability seeks to address issues including colonialism, disability, the body, forced labour and indigeneity. A further key issue that reoccurs throughout the volume is the specificity of place. With several chapters examining the Global South, such work challenges the implicit tendency to assume that the western experience of disability is a universal one. The volume intends to do more than add new case studies to our knowledge about disability in the modern period, it intends to use the insights gained from examining disparate global sites to think more about the global histories of disability both empirically and theoretically. Issues addressed by different chapters include colonialism, imperialism, disability, deafness, the body, enslavement, labour and indigeneity. Different chapters also use economic, cultural, legal and political frameworks to explore issues of disability across a range of global locations. This volume is essential for students, scholars and researchers alike interested in world and international history.

Created during and after the Second World War, the British Welfare State seemed to promise welfare for all, but, in its original form, excluded millions of disabled people. This book examines attempts in the subsequent three decades to reverse this exclusion. It is the first to contextualise disability historically in the welfare state and under each government of the period. It looks at how disability policy and perceptions were slow to change as a welfare issue, which is very timely in today’s climate of austerity. It also provides the first major analysis of the Disablement Income Group, one of the most powerful pressure groups in the period and the 1972 Thalidomide campaign and its effect on the Heath government. Given the recent emergence of the history of disability in Britain as a major area of research, the book will be ideal for academics, students and activists seeking a better understanding of the topic.