Writing the History of Disabilities: Agency, Intersections, Concepts

This book uses a variety of case studies to examine how disability can be used as an analytical lens, and provide new perspectives on historical research.

Approximately 15-20% of the world's population is estimated to be disabled. Writing the History of Disabilities examines 13 case studies, ranging from the activism of Italian First World War veterans, to the social history of Tuberculosis in North America, and the history of disability in sport. Each chapter encourages wider historical engagement with the social and cultural impacts of disability, and demonstrates how the history of disability can interact with existing theoretical frameworks.

This book demonstrates the potential for disability as an analytical concept, both in its own right, and as a new approach to the study of history. Illuminating the intersections between disability and class, race, gender, and sexuality, this volume examines disability alongside a range of historical methodologies, and invites students to include disability in their analytical toolkit, and create more inclusive histories.

Heiko Feldner is Senior Lecturer in Modern German History at Cardiff University, UK.

Heiko Feldner is co-director of the Centre for Ideology Critique and Žižek Studies at Cardiff University, UK. He is also the General Editor of Bloomsbury's Writing History series on historiography and historical theory, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, London. A former lecturer in the departments of political economy and history at the University of Halle-Wittenberg, Germany, he has written several books, including Zizek: Beyond Foucault (with F. Vighi, Palgrave 2007).