Social Perceptions of People With Disabilities in History

In recent years, there has been an abundance of literature written on the subject of people with disabilities. However, there has been a noticeable paucity of information available on the historical aspects of disabled persons. This book will help to develop a social history on disabilities by providing a multidisciplinary overview of images of people with disabilities in Western history; promoting the exchange of crossdisciplinary information on disabled people from art, literature, original data, and historical works; filling the gap in our understanding of how disabled people were viewed prior to modern history; illustrating how art and literature can be used to understand how disabled people were perceived in their respective times; and showing how historical factors shape some of our current perceptions about disability. With the growing interest in people with disabilities and the recent passage of the American Disability Act, this book will be of great importance to special educators, historians, students of the humanities, and social scientists.