Format:
1 Online-Ressource
ISBN:
9780814740880
Series Statement:
The History of Disability 3
Content:
The murky history behind municipal laws criminalizing disabilityIn the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, municipal laws targeting "unsightly beggars" sprang up in cities across America. Seeming to criminalize disability and thus offering a visceral example of discrimination, these "ugly laws" have become a sort of shorthand for oppression in disability studies, law, and the arts.In this watershed study of the ugly laws, Susan M. Schweik uncovers the murky history behind the laws, situating the varied legislation in its historical context and exploring in detail what the laws meant. Illustrating how the laws join the history of the disabled and the poor, Schweik not only gives the reader a deeper understanding of the ugly laws and the cities where they were generated, she locates the laws at a crucial intersection of evolving and unstable concepts of race, nation, sex, class, and gender. Moreover, she explores the history of resistance to the ordinances, using the often harrowing life stories of those most affected by their passage. Moving to the laws' more recent history, Schweik analyzes the shifting cultural memory of the ugly laws, examining how they have been used-and misused-by academics, activists, artists, lawyers, and legislators
Note:
Frontmatter
,
Contents
,
Preface
,
Acknowledgments
,
INTRODUCTION
,
Part I THE EMERGENCE OF THE UGLY LAWS
,
1 PRODUCING THE UNSIGHTLY
,
2 GET TING UGLY
,
3 THE LAW IN CONTEXT
,
4 THE LAW IN LANGUAGE
,
5 DISSIMULATIONS
,
Part I I AT THE UNSIGHTLY INTERSECTION
,
6 GENDER, SEXUALITY, AND THE UGLY LAW
,
7 IMMIGRATION, ETHNICITY, AND THE UGLY LAW
,
8 RACE, SEGREGATION, AND THE UGLY LAW
,
Part iii THE END OF THE UGLY LAWS
,
9 THE RIGHT TO THE CITY
,
10 REHABILITATING THE UNSIGHTLY
,
11 ALL ABOUT UGLY LAWS (FOR TEN CENTS)
,
CONCLUSION
,
Appendix: The Ugly Laws
,
Notes
,
Bibliography
,
Index
,
About the Author
,
In English
Language:
English
DOI:
10.18574/nyu/9780814740880.001.0001
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