nordstina 's review for:

Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum by Antonia Hylton

4.5

---

Antonia Hylton's Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum is a informative and very readable history of Maryland's Crownsville Hospital that was first opened just for Black patients before being integrated later in its existence before finally being shut down as deinstitutionalization of mental hospitals ran through the country. Hylton evokes the early years at Crownsville that began with Black men building the future aslyum they would be housed in. At its peak, Crownsville housed over 2,500 people for a variety of ailments (and non-ailments). It is a fascinating integration of racism, mental health policies, and stigmatization. Much of the documentation of the hospital has been lost, so the author reconstructs as best they can, highlighting particular patients and workers at the hospital and within the town. This book was so in my interest wheelhouse and would highly recommend to others.