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The Undesirables : The Mental Deficiency Act of 1913 and Its Assault on Liberty - Sarah Wise

The Undesirables

The Mental Deficiency Act of 1913 and Its Assault on Liberty

Hardcover | 2 July 2024

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Hardcover
352 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
23.4 x 15.3

Hardcover

RRP $39.99

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By 1950, an estimated 50,000 people had been deemed âdefectiveâ by the government and detained for life under the 1913 Mental Deficiency Act. Their âcrimesâ were various: women with children born outside of wedlock; rebellious teenagers caught shoplifting; those with learning disorders, speech impediments and chronic illnesses who had struggled in school; and, of course, those who were simply âdifferentâ. Forcibly removed from their families and confined to a shadow world of specialist facilities in the countryside, they were hidden away and forgotten about â" out of sight, out of mind.

Through painstaking archival research, Sarah Wise pieces together the lives irrevocably changed by this devastating legislation and provides a compelling study of how early 20th-century attitudes to class, gender and disability have continued to shape social policy.

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