Scapegoat : Why We Are Failing Disabled People

by Unknown

• ISBN13: 9781846273216
• ISBN10: 1846273218
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2011-08-01
• Publisher: Granta Books

Summary

A ground-breaking portrait of the way our society treats some of its most disadvantaged members, Quarmby's book is the first to examine the roots of our uncomfortable and often hostile attitudes towards disabled people, and to argue for greater official recognition of these crimes as hate crimes Every few months there's a shocking news story about the sustained, and often fatal, abuse of a disabled person. It's easy to write off such cases as bullying that got out of hand, terrible criminal anomalies or regrettable failures of the care system, but in fact they point to a more uncomfortable and fundamental truth about how our society treats its most unequal citizens. In Scapegoat, Katharine Quarmby looks behind the headlines to trace the history of disability and our discomfort with disabled people, from Greek and Roman culture through the Industrial Revolution and the origins of Britain's asylum system to the eugenics movement and the Holocaust, the introduction of "Ugly Laws" in the US and the unintended consequences of Britain's poorly planned "community care" initiative. Quarmby also charts the modern disability rights movement from the veterans of WW2 and Vietnam in the US and UK to those who have fought for independent living and the end of segregation, as well as equal rights, for the last twenty years. Combining fascinating examples from history with tenacious investigation and powerful first person interviews, Scapegoat will change the way we think about disability - and about the changes we must make as a society to ensure that disabled people are seen as equal citizens, worthy of respect, not targets for taunting, torture and attack.

Author Biography

KATHARINE QUARMBY is a campaigning journalist and an award-winning film-maker, as well as an associate editor at Prospect magazine. She has worked as a producer on Panorama and Newsnight, news edited Disability Now, and written for the Economist, Sunday Times, Telegraph and Guardian. She was the first British journalist to investigate disability hate crime and her report for Scope, ‘Getting Away with Murder’, has revolutionised thinking about the issue. This is her first book for adults.