A Cultural History of Disability in the Renaissance (The Cultural Histories Series)

How has our understanding and treatment of disability evolved in Western culture? How has it been represented and perceived in different social and cultural conditions? In a work that spans 2,500 years, these ambitious questions are addressed by over 50 experts, each contributing their overview of a theme applied to a period in history. The volumes describe different kinds of physical and mental disabilities, their representations and receptions, and what impact they have had on society and everyday life. Individual volume editors ensure the cohesion of the whole, and to make it as easy as possible to use, chapter titles are identical across each of the volumes. This gives the choice of reading about a specific period in one of the volumes, or following a theme across history by reading the relevant chapter in each of the six. The six volumes cover : 1. Antiquity (500 BCE - 500 CE); 2. Middle Ages (500 - 1450); 3. Renaissance (1400 - 1650) ; 4. Long Eighteenth Century (1650 - 1800); 5. Long Nineteenth Century (1800 - 1920); 6. Modern Age (1920 2000+). Themes (and chapter titles) atypical bodies; mobility impairment; chronic pain and illness; blindness; deafness; speech; learning difficulties; mental health. The page extent is approximately 2,000pp with c. 200 illustrations. Each volume opens with Notes on Contributors, a series preface and an introduction, and concludes with Notes, Bibliography and an Index. How has our understanding and treatment of disability evolved in Western culture? How has it been represented and perceived in different social and cultural conditions? In a work that spans 2,500 years, these ambitious questions are addressed by over 50 experts, each contributing their overview of a theme applied to a period in history. The volumes describe different kinds of physical and mental disabilities, their representations and receptions, and what impact they have had on society and everyday life.0Individual volume editors ensure the cohesion of the whole, and to make it as easy as possible to use, chapter titles are identical across each of the volumes. This gives the choice of reading about a specific period in one of the volumes, or following a theme across history by reading the relevant chapter in each of the six. The six volumes cover: 1. - Antiquity (500 BCE - 500 CE); 2. - Middle Ages (500 - 1450); 3. - Renaissance (1400 - 1650) ; 4. - Long Eighteenth Century (1650 - 1800); 5. - Long Nineteenth Century (1800 - 1920); 6. - Modern Age (1920 - 2000+). Themes (and chapter titles) are: atypical bodies; mobility impairment; chronic pain and illness; blindness; deafness; speech; learning difficulties; mental health. The page extent is approximately 2,000 pages with c. 200 illustrations. Each volume opens with Notes on Contributors, a series preface and an introduction, and concludes with notes, bibliography and an index How has our understanding and treatment of disability evolved in Western culture? How has it been represented and perceived in different social and cultural conditions? In a work that spans 2,500 years, these ambitious questions are addressed by over 50 experts, each contributing their overview of a theme applied to a period in history. The volumes describe different kinds of physical and mental disabilities, their representations and receptions, and what impact they have had on society and everyday life. Individual volume editors ensure the cohesion of the whole, and to make it as easy as possible to use, chapter titles are identical across each of the volumes. This gives the choice of reading about a specific period in one of the volumes, or following a theme across history by reading the relevant chapter in each of the six. The six volumes cover: 1. - Antiquity (500 BCE - 500 CE); 2. - Middle Ages (500 - 1450); 3. - Renaissance (1400 - 1650) ; 4. - Long Eighteenth Century (1650 - 1800); 5. - Long Nineteenth Century (1800 - 1920); 6. - Modern Age (1920 - 2000+). Themes (and chapter titles) are: atypical bodies; mobility impairment; chronic pain and illness; blindness; deafness; speech; learning difficulties; mental health. The page extent is approximately 2,000 pages with c. 200 illustrations. Each volume opens with Notes on Contributors, a series preface and an introduction, and concludes with notes, bibliography and an index "The long nineteenth century--stretching from the start of the American Revolution in 1776 to the end of World War I in 1918--was a pivotal period in the history of disability for the Western world and the cultures under its imperial sway. Industrialization was a major factor in the changing landscape of disability, providing new adaptive technologies and means of access while simultaneously contributing to the creation of a mass-produced environment hostile to bodies and minds that did not adhere to emerging norms. In defining disability, medical views, which framed disabilites as problems to be solved, competed with discourses from such diverse realms as religion, entertainment, education, and literature. Disabled writers and activists generated important counternarratives, made increasingly available through the spread of print culture. An essential resource for researchers, scholars, and students of history, literature, culture, and education, A Cultural History of Disability in Antiquity explores such themes and topics as: atypical bodies, mobility impairment, chronic pain and illness, blindness; deafness, speech, learning difficulties, and mental health, with 34 illustrations drawn from period sources"--Back cover "IIn Renaissance humanism, difference was understood through a variety of paradigms that rendered particular kinds of bodies and minds disabled. A Cultural History of Disability in the Renaissance, covering the period from 1450 to 1650, explores evidence of the possibilities for disability that existed in the European Renaissance, observable in the literary and medicinal texts, and the family, corporate, and legal records discussed in the chapters of this volume. These chapters provide an interdisciplinary overview of the configurations of bodies, minds and collectives that have left evidence of some of the ways that normativity and its challengers interacted in the Renaissance. An essential resource for researchers, scholars and students of history, literature, culture and education, A Cultural History of Disability in the Renaissance explores such themes and topics as: atypical bodies; mobility impairment; chronic pain and illness; blindness; deafness; speech; learning difficulties; and mental health"-- Provided by publisher "In Renaissance humanism, difference was understood through a variety of paradigms that rendered particular kinds of bodies and minds disabled. A Cultural History of Disability in the Renaissance, covering the period from 1450 to 1650, explores evidence of the possibilites for disability that existed in the European Renaissance, observable in the literary and medicinal texts, and the family, corporate, and legal records discussed in the chapters of this volume. These chapters provide an interdisciplinary overview of the configurations of bodies, minds and collectives that have left evidence of some of the ways that normativity and its challengers interacted in the Renaissance. An essential resource for researchers, scholars, and students of history, literature, culture, and education, A Cultural History of Disability in Antiquity explores such themes and topics as: atypical bodies, mobility impairment, chronic pain and illness, blindness; deafness, speech, learning difficulties, and mental health"--Back cover