The Undesirables : The Law that Locked Away a Generation

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.

Author: Sarah Wise

Format: Hardback

Publication Date: 4 April 2024

Pages: 352

ISBN: 9780861544554 Category: History Tags: 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000, c 1918 to c 1939 (Inter-war period), Disability: social aspects, Great Britain, History of ideas, History of Medicine, History of science, Medical ethics & professional conduct, Political control & freedoms, Poverty & unemployment, Social & cultural history, United Kingdom

The Undesirables : The Law that Locked Away a Generation

Name: The Undesirables : The Law that Locked Away a Generation
SKU: 9780861544554
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