Inventing the Feeble Mind
A History of Intellectual Disability in the United States
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Oxford University Press Inc
Published:29th Dec '16
Should be back in stock very soon
Pity, disgust, fear, cure, and prevention--all are words that Americans have used to make sense of what today we call intellectual disability. Inventing the Feeble Mind explores the history of this disability from its several identifications over the past 200 years: idiocy, imbecility, feeblemindedness, mental defect, mental deficiency, mental retardation, and most recently intellectual disability. Using institutional records, private correspondence, personal memories, and rare photographs, James Trent argues that the economic vulnerability of intellectually disabled people (and often their families), more than the claims made for their intellectual and social limitations, has shaped meaning, services, and policies in United States history.
Trents thorough examination of the history of intellectual disability in the United States has become a key text for anyone interested in this topic. Though not a historian, Trent has completed thorough archival research and interviewed contemporary witnesses to create a comprehensive, though accessible, introduction to a history that shines a light on the best and worst of the human condition. * Daniel Werges, H-Net Reviews *
ISBN: 9780199396184
Dimensions: 155mm x 234mm x 25mm
Weight: 544g
392 pages