The history of special education is a collection of the memories and stories that serve as a foundation for the field. Historical research sometimes reveals previously overlooked insights. It is also an opportunity for understanding aspects of people and events that have previously been overlooked. Historical research may also help to bring a new or different focus to contemporary issues and challenges in the field of special education. Most important, however, historical scholarship is a commitment to seeking the “truest” story among the facts that have been recorded and transmitted in the discipline.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Blatt, B. (1987). The conquest of mental retardation. Austin, TX: PRO-ED.
2.
Dayan, Y. (1985). My father, his daughter. London: Weidenfield & Nicolson.
3.
Dickens, C. (1842). American notes. London: Oxford University Press.
4.
Edgerton, R. (1993). The cloak of competence (Rev. ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press.
5.
Foner, P. (1967). Helen Keller: Her socialist years, writings and speeches. New York: International Publishers.
6.
Freeberg, E. (1992). An object of peculiar interest: The education of Laura Bridgman. Church History, 61, 191–205.
7.
Gallaher, D. (1995). Voice for the mad: The life of Dorothea Dix. New York: Free Press.
8.
Gibbons, F. X. (1985). Stigma perception: Social comparison among mentally retarded persons. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 90, 98–106.
9.
Gitter, E. (1991). Charles Dickens. Dickens Quarterly, 8, 162–168.
10.
Goffman, E. (1963). Stigma: Notes on the management of spoiled identity. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
11.
Howe, S. (1893). The education of Laura Bridgman. Boston: Perkins Institution.
12.
Howe, M., & Hall, F. (1904). Laura Bridgman: Dr. Howe's famous pupil and what he taught her. London: Hodden & Stoughton.
13.
Keller, H. (1915, December 18). Physicians' juries for defective babies. The New Republic, pp. 173–174.
14.
Lopez, B. H. (1990). Crow and weasel. San Francisco: North Point Press.
15.
Mead, M. (1928). Coming of age in Samoa: A psychological study of primitive youth for western civilization. New York: William Morrow.
16.
Mead, M. (1959). Research cult: Or cure?American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 64, 253–264.
17.
Pernick, M. (1996). The Black Stork: Eugenics and the death of “defective” babies in American medicine and motion pictures since 1915. New York: Oxford University Press.
18.
Smith, J. D. (1985). Minds made feeble: The myth and the legacy of the Kallikaks. Rockville, MD: Aspen.
19.
Smith, J. D. (1987). The other voices: Profiles of women in the history of special education. Seattle: Special Child Publications.
20.
Smith, J. D. (1997). Construction of mental retardation and the challenge of advocacy: The different voices of Helen Keller and Burton Blatt. Mental Retardation, 35, 138–140.
21.
Smith, J. D., & Anton, M. (1997). Laura Bridgman, mental retardation, and the question of differential advocacy. Mental Retardation, 35, 398–401.
22.
Smith, J. D., & Johnson, G. (1997). Margaret Mead and mental retardation: Words of understanding, concepts of inclusiveness. Mental Retardation, 35, 306–309.
23.
Smith, J. D., & Nelson, K. (1989). The sterilization of Carrie Buck. Far Hill, NJ: New Horizon Press.
