Full Description
The collective social history of deaf people in America has yet to be written. While scholars have focused their attention on residential schools for the deaf, leaders in the deaf community, and prominent graduates of these institutions, the lives of "ordinary" deaf individuals have been largely overlooked. Employing the methods of social history, such as the use of digital history techniques and often-ignored sources like census records, Eric C. Nystrom and R. A. R. Edwards recover the lived experiences of everyday deaf people in late nineteenth century America. Ordinary Lives captures the stories of deaf women and men, both Black and white, describing their family lives, networks of support, educational experiences, and successes and hardships. In this pioneering "deaf social history," Edwards and Nystrom reconstruct the biographies of a wider range of deaf individuals to tell a richer, more nuanced, and more inclusive history of the larger American deaf community.
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1
Deaf History, Cultural History, and Social History
Chapter 2
Deafness and the Census
Chapter 3
Population
Chapter 4
Lydia Macomber's Network
Chapter 5
Becoming a National Community
Chapter 6
Race
Chapter 7
Geography
Chapter 8
The Deaf Vineyard in 1880
Chapter 9
Institutions and Work
Chapter 10
Joseph DeHart
Conclusion and Future Directions
Appendix: Queries
Notes
Index
