1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910454870603321

Autore

Schweik Susan M (Susan Marie), <1956->

Titolo

The ugly laws [[electronic resource] ] : disability in public / / Susan M. Schweik

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New York, : New York University, c2009

ISBN

0-8147-0887-0

0-8147-4088-X

1-4416-2291-8

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (446 p.)

Collana

The history of disability

Disciplina

346.7301/3

Soggetti

People with disabilities - Legal status, laws, etc - United States - History

Beggars - Legal status, laws, etc - United States - History

Discrimination against people with disabilities - Law and legislation - United States - History

People with disabilities - United States - History

Beggars - United States - History

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 351-404) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Producing the unsightly -- Getting ugly -- The law in context -- The law in language -- Dissimulations -- Gender, sexuality, and the ugly law -- Immigration, ethnicity, and the ugly law -- Race, segregation, and the ugly law -- The right to the city -- Rehabilitating the unsightly -- All about ugly laws (for ten cents).

Sommario/riassunto

In the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, municipallaws targeting "unsightly beggars" sprang up in cities across America. Seeming to criminalize disability and thus offering a visceral example of discrimination, these “ugly laws” have become a sort of shorthand for oppression in disability studies, law, and the arts.In this watershed study of the ugly laws, Susan M. Schweik uncovers the murky history behind the laws, situating the varied legislation in its historical context and exploring in detail what the laws meant. Illustrating how the laws join the history of the disabled and the poor, Schweik not only gives the



reader a deeper understanding of the ugly laws and the cities where they were generated, she locates the laws at a crucial intersection of evolving and unstable concepts of race, nation, sex, class, and gender. Moreover, she explores the history of resistance to the ordinances, using the often harrowing life stories of those most affected by their passage. Moving to the laws’ more recent history, Schweik analyzes the shifting cultural memory of the ugly laws, examining how they have been used—and misused—by academics, activists, artists, lawyers, and legislators.