Julia
This was great in many ways! Nielsen's foremost achievement is clearly articulating how disability history is not adjunctive but central to the American story, particularly relating to our obsession over what a democratic citizenry "should" look like. I do wish there are times she'd done slightly deeper dives into some of the tidbits she unearthed (there'd be a fascinating sentence about someone...and then the text would move on!) or acknowledged when that wasn't possible due to lack of records. This was also written long enough ago that I longed for an updated version that moves the history through from disability rights to disability justice. Still, invaluable reading overall.
This was great in many ways! Nielsen's foremost achievement is clearly articulating how disability history is not adjunctive but central to the American story, particularly relating to our obsession over what a democratic citizenry "should" look like. I do wish there are times she'd done slightly deeper dives into some of the tidbits she unearthed (there'd be a fascinating sentence about someone...and then the text would move on!) or acknowledged when that wasn't possible due to lack of records. This was also written long enough ago that I longed for an updated version that moves the history through from disability rights to disability justice. Still, invaluable reading overall.