Please circulate
"Personal inclination made me a historian. Personal encounter with public
policy made me an activist."
Paul K. Longmore. _Why I Burned My Book and Other Essays on Disability_
(Philadelphia: Temple University, 2003), 288 pp.
This wide-ranging book shows why Paul Longmore is one of the most
respected figures in disability studies today. Understanding disability
as a major variety of human experience, he urges us to establish it as a
category of social, political, and historical analysis in much the same
way that race, gender, and class already have been. The essays here
search for the often hidden pattern of systemic prejudice and probe into
the institutionalized discrimination that affects the one in five
Americans with disabilities.
Whether writing about the social critic Randolph Bourne, contemporary
political activists, or media representations of people with disabilities,
Longmore demonstrates that the search for heroes is a key part of the
continuing struggle of disabled people to gain a voice and to shape their
destinies. His essays on bioethics and public policy examine the conflict
of agendas between disability rights activists and non-disabled policy
makers, healthcare professionals, euthanasia advocates, and corporate
medical bureaucracies. The title essay, which concludes the book,
demonstrates the necessity of activism for any disabled person who wants
access to the American dream.
"Paul Longmore's sharp and cogent criticism has always sought and found
the soul of the disability rights movement. But these essays go far
beyond activism and constitute a cultural document for a people adrift.
Longmore's refreshing views represent an intellectual Ellis Island for
people with disabilities, hampered by bureaucracy, myth and sentiment,
trying to find a place in America."
John Hockenberry
NBC News
"Paul Longmore is simply the best historian now writing about
disabilities. This volume collects a series of major essays that have
shaped the academic and public discourse about disabilities inside of and
beyond the university. From the unwritten history of disabled people to
questions of assisted suicide, and the public face of disability culture,
Longmore writes intelligently, compassionately, and readably. Read these
essays and learn!"
Sander Gilman
Distinguished Professor of the Liberal Arts and Sciences and of Medicine
University of Illinois at Chicago
Paul K. Longmore is Professor of History at San Francisco State
University. He is the author of _The Invention of George Washington_ and
the co-editor (with Lauri Umansky) of _The New Disability History:
American Perspectives_.
In the series American Subjects, edited by Robert Dawidoff.
The American Subjects series, edited by Robert Dawidoff, will introduce
readers to unfamiliar areas or figures in American culture. All of the
titles in this series will be the first on their particular subject. Each
will tell an unfamiliar story and will emphasize the cultural side of how
Americans have lived and what they have created or thought.
paper: $22.95, Mar 03
ISBN: 1-59213-024-0
Not Yet Published Preorder
cloth: $69.50, Mar 03
ISBN: 1-59213-023-2
Not Yet Published Preorder
Call toll-free in the United States
1-800-621-2736
For international orders, call 733-568-1550
Please have your credit card handy.
Fax the order form:
Download the order form from our website <www.temple.edu/tempress> and fax
it to:
1-800-621-8476 (United States)
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Mail the order form to:
Temple University Press
c/o Chicago Distribution Center
11030 South Langley Avenue
Chicago, IL 60628
Make Checks Payable to Temple University Press.
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