Publisher's Synopsis
Covering the entirety of US history from pre-1492 to the present, A Disability History of the United States is the first book to place the experiences of people with disabilities at the center of the American narrative. Using absorbing and at times horrific narratives of blinded slaves being thrown overboard and the forced sterilization of women, and triumphant accounts of disabled miners organizing strikes and activists picketing Washington, disability scholar Kim E. Nielsen illustrates how concepts of disability have shaped the American experience-from deciding who was allowed to immigrate, establishing labor laws, and justifying slavery and gender discrimination.
