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240
Book • Nonfiction
United States • All Time Periods
2012
Adult
18+ years
A Disability History of the United States by Kim E. Nielsen provides a comprehensive overview of disability history in America, exploring its definitions, treatments, and personal experiences from pre-Columbian Indigenous societies to modern times. The book highlights disability's influence on American history, intersecting with race, gender, and class over eight chronological chapters. Topics include ableism, racism, enslavement, and mental illness.
Informative
Challenging
Emotional
Inspirational
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Kim E. Nielsen's A Disability History of the United States is praised for its thorough and insightful exploration of disability in American history. Critics commend its inclusive narrative and meticulous research. Nevertheless, some feel it occasionally lacks depth in analysis. Overall, it is a significant contribution to disability studies.
Readers with a keen interest in social justice, American history, and disability studies will appreciate Kim E. Nielsen's A Disability History of the United States. Comparable to Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, it gives a voice to marginalized communities and offers an inclusive historical perspective.
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James Otis, Jr.
A revolutionary thinker from Massachusetts, recognized for coining the phrase "taxation without representation is tyranny" and his experience of insanity intersecting with political and class privilege.
Dorothea Dix
A 19th-century social reformer who advocated for people with mental illness by working to improve asylum conditions based on her observations of institutional abuse.
Thomas A. Perrine
A Union soldier from the Civil War whose poetry reflects his personal experiences following the amputation of his arm and subsequent military service.
Agatha Tiegel
The first woman to graduate from Gallaudet College in 1893, who, as a class valedictorian, highlighted the impact of racism and sexism on educational opportunities.
Harry Laughlin
An educator and superintendent of the Eugenics Records Office known for his advocacy of eugenics and his sterilization law model that gained international attention.
Alice Smith
A New Jersey woman with epilepsy whose 1912 sterilization order was overturned by the New Jersey Supreme Court as it violated the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
The 32nd President of the United States whose experience with polio and efforts in creating accessible rehabilitation facilities are significant to disability history.
Paul Strachan
A labor organizer and early disability rights activist who founded the American Federation of the Physically Handicapped and supported cross-disability inclusivity.
240
Book • Nonfiction
United States • All Time Periods
2012
Adult
18+ years
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