No Right to Be Idle : The Invention of Disability, 1840s–1930s

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Americans with all sorts of disabilities came to be labeled as "unproductive citizens." Before that, disabled people had contributed as they were able in homes, on farms, and in the wage labor market, reflecting the fact that Americans had long viewed productivity as a spectrum that varied by age, gender, and ability. But as Sarah F. Rose explains in No Right to Be Idle , a perfect storm of public policies, shifting family structures, and economic changes effectively barred workers with disabilities from mainstream workplaces and simultaneously cast disabled people as morally questionable dependents in need of permanent rehabilitation to achieve "self-care" and "self-support." By tracing the experiences of policymakers, employers, reformers, and disabled people caught up in this epochal transition, Rose masterfully integrates disability history and labor history. She shows how people with disabilities lost access to paid work and the status of "worker—a shift that relegated them and their families to poverty and second-class economic and social citizenship. This has vast consequences for debates about disability, work, poverty, and welfare in the century to come. In The Late Nineteenth And Early Twentieth Centuries, A Major Transformation Was Occurring In Many Spheres Of Society: People With Every Sort Of Disability Were Increasingly Being Marginalized, Excluded, And Incarcerated. Disabled But Still Productive Factory Workers Were Being Fired, And Developmentally Disabled Individuals Who Had Previously Contributed Domestic Or Agricultural Labor In Homes Or On Farms Were Being Sent To Institutions And Poorhouses. [the Author] Pinpoints The Origins And Ramifications Of This Sea-change In American Society, Exploring The Ways That Public Policy Removed The Disabled From The Category Of Deserving Recipients Of Public Assistance, Transforming Them Into A Group Requiring Rehabilitation In Order To Achieve Self-care And Self-support. By Tracing The Experiences Of Advocates, Program Innovators, And Disabled People Caught Up In This Epochal Transition, Rose ... Integrates Disability History And Labor History To Show How Disabled People And Their Families Were Relegated To Poverty And Second-class Economic And Social Citizenship, With Vast Consequences For Debates About Disability, Poverty, And Welfare In The Century To Come-- Machine Generated Contents Note: Ch. One Her Mother Did Not Like To Have Her Learn To Work: Disability, Family, And The Spectrum Of Productivity, 1840s -- 1870s -- Ch. Two He Had No Home But The County Poor House: Family Incapacity, Charity Policy, Wage Labor, And The Shift To Custodial Care, 1870s -- 1900s -- Ch. Three I Wish To Thank You For My Freedom: Paroling Feeble-minded People Into Farm And Domestic Work, 1900s -- 1930s -- Ch. Four We Do Not Prefer Cripples, But They Can Earn Full Wages: Mechanization, Efficiency, And The Quest For Interchangeable Workers, 1880s -- 1920s -- Ch. Five The Greatest Handicap Suffered By Crippled Workers: The Perverse Impact Of Workmen's Compensation, 1900s -- 1930s -- Ch. Six Saving The Human Wreckage Cast On The Industrial Scrap Heap: Goodwill Industries And The Imperative Of Efficiency, 1890s -- 1920s -- Ch. Seven The Duty To Make Himself A Useful, Self-supporting Citizen: Disabled Veterans And The Limits Of Vocational Rehabilitation, 1910s -- 1920s. Sarah F. Rose. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Cover ......Page 1 Contents ......Page 8 Acknowledgments ......Page 12 Introduction ......Page 18 Chapter One. Her Mother Did Not Like to Have Her Learn to Work: Disability, Family, and the Spectrum of Productivity, 1840s–1870s ......Page 31 Chapter Two. He Had No Home but the County Poor House: Family Incapacity, Charity Policy, Wage Labor, and the Shift to Custodial Care, 1870s–1900s ......Page 66 Chapter Three. I Wish to Thank You for My Freedom: Paroling Feeble-Minded People into Farm and Domestic Work, 1900s–1930s ......Page 108 Chapter Four. We Do Not Prefer Cripples, but They Can Earn Full Wages: Mechanization, Efficiency, and the Quest for Interchangeable Workers, 1880s–1920s ......Page 128 Chapter Five. The Greatest Handicap Suffered by Crippled Workers: The Perverse Impact of Workmen’s Compensation, 1900s–1930s ......Page 154 Chapter Six. Saving the Human Wreckage Cast on the Industrial Scrap Heap: Goodwill Industries and the Imperative of Efficiency, 1890s–1920s ......Page 189 Chapter Seven. The Duty to Make Himself a Useful, Self-Supporting Citizen: Disabled Veterans and the Limits of Vocational Rehabilitation, 1910s–1920s ......Page 207 Conclusion......Page 240 Appendix. A Note on Sources......Page 246 Notes......Page 250 Bibliography......Page 356 A......Page 386 B......Page 387 D......Page 388 E......Page 389 F......Page 390 H......Page 391 I......Page 392 M ......Page 393 O......Page 394 R......Page 395 S......Page 396 V ......Page 397 W......Page 398 Y ......Page 399