A review by ampersand93
A History of Disability by Henri-Jacques Stiker

3.0

Stiker’s “A History of Disability” is an interesting and well-researched attempt at providing an overview of how disability has been perceived and constructed by/through sociocultural and religious lenses over time. But to call this a “history” is only a half-truth (as Mitchell and Snyder acknowledge in the foreword to the edition I own) since the focus of this study is exclusively European and Western and largely fails to take into account how disability intersects with other identity categories, such as race, gender, and sexuality. Nonetheless, the book is a good start for those who are still only finding their footing in disability studies.