Constructing Disability after the Great War

Blind Veterans in the Progressive Era

Evan P. Sullivan

• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN:
  9780252088247
  9780252046162
• eBook ISBN:
  9780252047428
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: Social Sciences

As Americans--both civilians and veterans--worked to determine the meanings of identity for blind veterans of World War I, they bound cultural constructs of blindness to all the emotions and contingencies of mobilizing and fighting the war, and healing from its traumas. Sighted Americans' wartime rehabilitation culture centered blind soldiers and veterans in a mix of inspirational stories. Veterans worked to become productive members of society even as ableism confined their unique life experiences to a collection of cultural tropes that suggested they were either downcast wrecks of their former selves or were morally superior and relatively flawless as they overcame their disabilities and triumphantly journeyed toward successful citizenship. Sullivan investigates the rich lives of blind soldiers and veterans and their families to reveal how they confronted barriers, gained an education, earned a living, and managed their self-image while continually exposed to the public's scrutiny of their success and failures.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Beginning with Carl Bronner
• 1 Blindness Comes Home: How American Charities Made Blind French Soldiers a Public Issue
• 2 “I’ll Get Along”: Reporters Reimagine Blind American Soldiers
• 3 Gender, Race, and Belonging at Evergreen and Beyond
• 4 The Disability Politics of Blind Veteran Organizations in the United States
• Epilogue: Frank Schoble and the Persistence of Public Sympathy for Blind Veterans
• Notes
• Index