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A groundbreaking medical and social history of a devastating hereditary neurological disorder once demonized as "the witchcraft disease" When Phebe Hedges, a woman in East Hampton, New York, walked into the sea in 1806, she made visible the historical experience of a family affected by the dreaded disorder of movement, mind, and mood her neighbors called St.Vitus's dance. Doctors later spoke of Huntington's chorea, and today it is known as Huntington's disease. This book is the first history of Huntington's in America. Starting with the life of Phebe Hedges, Alice Wexler uses Huntington's as a lens to explore the changing meanings of heredity, disability, stigma, and medical knowledge among ...
A lively and fascinating narrative history about the birth of the modern world. Beginning in the heady days just after the First Crusade, this volume—the third in the series that began with The History of the Ancient World and The History of the Medieval World—chronicles the contradictions of a world in transition. Popes continue to preach crusade, but the hope of a Christian empire comes to a bloody end at the walls of Constantinople. Aristotelian logic and Greek rationality blossom while the Inquisition gathers strength. As kings and emperors continue to insist on their divine rights, ordinary people all over the world seize power: the lingayats of India, the Jacquerie of France, the R...
Written by 30 authors from all over the world, this book provides a unique overview of exciting discoveries and surprising developments in human genetics over the last 50 years. The individual contributions, based on seven international workshops on the history of human genetics, cover a diverse range of topics, including the early years of the discipline, gene mapping and diagnostics. Further, they discuss the status quo of human genetics in different countries and highlight the value of genetic counseling as an important subfield of medical genetics.
The untold story of how hereditary data in mental hospitals gave rise to the science of human heredity In the early 1800s, a century before there was any concept of the gene, physicians in insane asylums began to record causes of madness in their admission books. Almost from the beginning, they pointed to heredity as the most important of these causes. As doctors and state officials steadily lost faith in the capacity of asylum care to stem the terrible increase of insanity, they began emphasizing the need to curb the reproduction of the insane. They became obsessed with identifying weak or tainted families and anticipating the outcomes of their marriages. Genetics in the Madhouse is the unt...
Books recommended for undergraduate and college libraries listed by Library of Congress Classification Numbers.
This is a new edition of the established reference and graduate text on experimental psychology. Widely used for over 25 years, this edition has been completely updated and expanded into two volumes; contributors to these works are among the most highly renowned professionals in the field. Volume 1 includes coverage of the physics and retinal physiology of vision; the nature of auditory perception, speech, and emotional patterns; and the latest theories and findings in the area of behavioral genetics. Volume 2 includes studies exploring such topics as the psychobiology of learning and memory; the influences of choice and reinforcement in human behavior; psycholinguistics; individual variations in cognitive functioning, and much more.
When Hitler came to power in 1933, he labeled physically and mentally handicapped citizens as dangerous to the genetic health of the German people. He initiated a compulsory sterilization program that eventually blocked 400,000 citizens from enjoying any normal family life. With the onset of war in 1939, he decided that resources should be reserved for healthy, worthwhile citizens who could work for victory. He then ordered a secret program to kill the handicapped. Approximately 250,000 citizens had died when the war finally ended. Readers in medicine, law, sociology and history will be intrigued by this compelling story of the brave citizens who spoke out against the immoral killing of the disabled. Many were arrested and imprisoned; some were executed. All the protesters claimed that the disabled were not “ballast people.” They were people who deserved opportunities to contribute what they could for the good of the community.