Description
Book SynopsisThis work investigates the emergence of "idiot" asylums in Victorian England. Using the National Asylum for Idiots, Earlswood, as a case-study, it examines the social history of institutionalization and the relationship between the medical institution and the society whence its patients came.
Trade ReviewThe book is an invaluable resource for historians, students and practitioners in the field of learning disability and deserves to be widely read. It is that rare phenomenon; a scholarly book that is also both readable and useful. * Local Population Studies *
This is a detailed and scholarly work, meticulous both in its attention to detail, and in its mastery of the wider context ... also very engaging and highly readable. Wright succeeds in helping bring the history of learning disability from the periphery into the mainstream. This is no mean feat. * Local Population Studies *
This is an important and timely book. It brings to prominence an under-researched and neglected area of social life - the history of learning disability. * Local Population Studies *
This important monograph provides a comprehensive summary of his contribution to this expanding historiography and gives a useful critique of current thinking on mental illness and mental disability issues. Wright seamlessly develops this narrative around the history of a unique institution in its Victorian heyday ... thoughtful and comprehensive study. * Medical History *
Exemplary study ... this is a wonderfully detailed study. One of its virtues is that it shows how tenuous disciplinary lines can be. To try to classify this work as institutional history, history of medicine, social history etc. would be to do a disservice to a volume that covers all these areas. * English Historical Review *
Table of ContentsIntroduction ; 1. The State and Mental Disability ; 2. An Asylum for Idiots ; 3. Care in the Community ; 4. Institutionalizing Households ; 5. Idiots by Election ; 6. To Know No Weariness ; 7. The Golden Chain of Charity ; 8. The Educable Idiot ; 9. Down's Syndrome ; 10. The Danger of the Feeble-Minded ; 11. Conclusions ; Select Bibliography ; Index
