Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring Physical Disability in American Culture and Literature

Rosemarie Garland Thomson

Columbia University Press, 1997 - Social Science - 200 pages

Few aspects of American military history have been as vigorously debated as Harry Truman's decision to use atomic bombs against Japan. In this carefully crafted volume, Michael Kort describes the wartime circumstances and thinking that form the context for the decision to use these weapons, surveys the major debates related to that decision, and provides a comprehensive collection of key primary source documents that illuminate the behavior of the United States and Japan during the closing days of World War II.

Kort opens with a summary of the debate over Hiroshima as it has evolved since 1945. He then provides a historical overview of thye events in question, beginning with the decision and program to build the atomic bomb. Detailing the sequence of events leading to Japan's surrender, he revisits the decisive battles of the Pacific War and the motivations of American and Japanese leaders. Finally, Kort examines ten key issues in the discussion of Hiroshima and guides readers to relevant primary source documents, scholarly books, and articles.

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User Review  - DarthDeverell - LibraryThing

In Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring Physical Disability in American Culture and Literature, Rosemarie Garland Thomson works to “alter the terms and expand our understanding of the cultural construction ...

Contents

• Disability Identity and Representation An Introduction: 5
• Theorizing Disability: 19
• CONSTRUCTING DISABLED FIGURES CULTURAL AND LITERARY SITES: 53
• The Cultural Work of American Freak Shows 18351940: 55
• Benevolent Maternalism and the Disabled Women in Stowe Davis and Phelps: 81
• Disabled Women as Powerful Women in Petry Morrison and Lorde: 103
• From Pathology to Identity: 135
• Notes: 139
• Bibliography: 173
• Index: 191

About the author

Rosemarie Garland-Thomson is Professor of English at Emory University, where her fields of study are disability studies, American literature and culture, feminist theory, and bioethics. Her work develops the field of critical disability studies in the health humanities, broadly understood, to bring forward disability access, inclusion and identity to communities inside and outside of the academy. She is the author of Staring: How We Look and the editor of Freakery: Cultural Spectacles of the Extraordinary Body.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring Physical Disability in American Culture and Literature; ACLS Humanities E-Book; Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring Physical Disability in American Culture and Literature, Rosemarie Garland-Thomson; History e-book project
• Author: Rosemarie Garland Thomson
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Columbia University Press, 1997
• ISBN: 0231105177, 9780231105170
• Length: 200 pages
• Subjects: Social Science / Popular Culture; Social Science / Sociology / General