- 352 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
About this book
Through the early twentieth century, the British Government locked away over 50,000 innocent people. Their ‘crimes’? Being poor and unyielding. This is their story.
A HISTORY TODAY BOOK OF THE YEAR
'Staggering… Wise's book bristles with injustices.' Sunday Telegraph, *****
By 1950, an estimated 50,000 people had been deemed ‘defective’ by the British government and detained indefinitely under the 1913 Mental Deficiency Act. Their ‘crimes’ were various: women with children born out of wedlock; rebellious teenagers caught shoplifting; those with epilepsy, hearing impairments and chronic illnesses who had struggled in school; and many who were simply ‘different’.
Forcibly removed from their families and confined to a shadow world of specialist facilities in the countryside, they were hidden away and forgotten – out of sight, out of mind.
Through painstaking archival research, award-winning historian Sarah Wise shines a light on this shameful chapter. Piecing together the lives irrevocably changed by this devastating legislation, The Undesirables provides a compelling study of how early twentieth-century attitudes to class, gender and disability resulted in a nationwide scandal – and how they continue to shape social policy to this day.
'The heartrending stories Sarah Wise has unearthed beggar belief… beautifully researched and truly compelling.' Catherine Bailey, author of Black Diamonds
A HISTORY TODAY BOOK OF THE YEAR
'Staggering… Wise's book bristles with injustices.' Sunday Telegraph, *****
By 1950, an estimated 50,000 people had been deemed ‘defective’ by the British government and detained indefinitely under the 1913 Mental Deficiency Act. Their ‘crimes’ were various: women with children born out of wedlock; rebellious teenagers caught shoplifting; those with epilepsy, hearing impairments and chronic illnesses who had struggled in school; and many who were simply ‘different’.
Forcibly removed from their families and confined to a shadow world of specialist facilities in the countryside, they were hidden away and forgotten – out of sight, out of mind.
Through painstaking archival research, award-winning historian Sarah Wise shines a light on this shameful chapter. Piecing together the lives irrevocably changed by this devastating legislation, The Undesirables provides a compelling study of how early twentieth-century attitudes to class, gender and disability resulted in a nationwide scandal – and how they continue to shape social policy to this day.
'The heartrending stories Sarah Wise has unearthed beggar belief… beautifully researched and truly compelling.' Catherine Bailey, author of Black Diamonds
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Yes, you can access The Undesirables by Sarah Wise in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & Gender & The Law. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Praise for Sarah Wise
- Also by Sarah Wise
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Unkind Words: A Note on Terminology
- A Note on Anonymity
- Answers of Herbert Jenner-Fust
- Epigraph
- Foreword
- Part 1: Inevitability
- 1 Winning the Argument
- 2 Occasional Criminals and Natural Monsters
- 3 āEducation on an Empty Stomachā
- 4 āHuman Dregs at the Bottom of Our National Vatsā: The Collapse in the Middle-Class Birth Rate
- 5 āOne Law for Men, and Another Law for Womenā
- Part 2: Changing the Law
- 6 āBe Very Carefulā: Winston Wades In
- 7 The Man Who Spoke Drivel
- Part 3: āDefects of Character and Temperamentā
- 8 āA Cross Between Public Schools and Guild Training Collegesā: The Mental Deficiency Colony
- 9 āShe Has a Bad Name in Clifton Hampdenā: Bessie Bā and the Policing of Female Sexuality
- 10 āA Crooked Mindā: The Adolescent Thief
- 11 Dirty Homes, Stupid Kids
- 12 Lovesick in St Jamesās
- 13 āAnd They Catch āim, and They Say āeās Mentalā: The Sex Offenders
- Part 4: Solutions
- 14 The Gateshead Castrations, or Paganism and the Knife
- 15 Unnatural Selection: What Went On Abroad
- 16 The East Chaldon Vicarage Affair: The āFeeble-Mindedā in the Community
- Part 5: Liberation?
- 17 āA Scandal on a Far from Small Scaleā
- 18 The Keys to the Door
- 19 Forty-Six Years of Waste
- Afterword: The Way We Live Now ā Deprivations of Liberty
- Appendix 1: How the 1913 Mental Deficiency Act Worked
- Appendix 2: Anecdotes of Women Detained for Having a Child out of Wedlock
- Appendix 3: American Responses to a British 1951 Survey on Sterilisation
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Picture Credits
- Imprint Page