Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Framing the moron: The social construction of feeble-mindedness in the American eugenic era

Framing the moron: The social construction of feeble-mindedness in the American eugenic era

O'Brien, Gerald

Hardcover

Series: Disability History

Medical Reference20th Century United States HistoryGeneral Sociology

ISBN10: 0719087090
ISBN13: 9780719087097
Publisher: Manchester Univ Pr
Published: Apr 30 2013
Pages: 224
Weight: 0.90
Height: 0.90 Width: 5.50 Depth: 8.60
Language: English

Many people are shocked upon discovering that tens of thousands of innocent persons in the United States were involuntarily sterilized, forced into institutions, and otherwise maltreated within the course of the eugenic movement (1900-30). Such social control efforts are easier to understand when we consider the variety of dehumanizing and fear-inducing rhetoric propagandists invoke to frame their potential victims. This book details the major rhetorical themes employed within the context of eugenic propaganda, drawing largely on original sources of the period. Early in the twentieth century the term moron was developed to describe the primary targets of eugenic control. This book demonstrates how the image of moronity in the United States was shaped by eugenicists.

This book will be of interest not only to disability and eugenic scholars and historians, but to anyone who wants to explore the means by which pejorative metaphors are used to support social control efforts against vulnerable community groups.

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