The New Disability History: American Perspectives (The History of Disability, 6)

A solid academic study of disability. Bookended by Baynton’s exhortation that we can see disability everywhere in history once we know where to look, Scotch’s overview of the growth of disability legislation in the 20th century, the meat of this book focuses on the late 19th century, and the way that the individualized, haphazard, and essentially minimal efforts of the Victorian era gave way to the scientific, bureaucratic, and public policy solutions of the Progressive era. The chapters vary between individual and institutional analysis, but are of uniformly high quality.