art, academic and non-fiction books
publishers’ Eastern and Central European representation

Name your list

Log in / Sign in

ta strona jest nieczynna, ale zapraszamy serdecznie na stronę www.obibook.com /// this website is closed but we cordially invite you to visit www.obibook.com

ISBN: HB: 9780226690612

University of Chicago Press

May 2020

328 pp.

22.8x15.2 cm

40 halftones

HB:
£22,00
QTY:

Categories:

Hearing Happiness

Deafness Cures in History

At the age of four, Jaipreet Virdi's world went silent. A severe case of meningitis left her alive but deaf, suddenly treated differently by everyone. Her deafness downplayed by society and doctors, she struggled to "pass" as hearing for most of her life. Countless cures, treatments, and technologies led to dead ends. Never quite deaf enough for the Deaf community or quite hearing enough for the "normal" majority, Virdi was stuck in aural limbo for years. It wasn't until her thirties, exasperated by problems with new digital hearing aids, that she began to actively assert her deafness and reexamine society's – and her own – perception of life as a deaf person in America.   Through lyrical history and personal memoir, "Hearing Happiness" raises pivotal questions about deafness in American society and the endless quest for a cure. Taking us from the 1860s up to the present, Virdi combs archives and museums in order to understand the long history of curious cures: hearing trumpets, violet-ray apparatuses, pneumomassages, electrotherapy machines, airplane diving, bloodletting, skull hammering, and many more. Hundreds of procedures and products have promised grand miracles but always failed to deliver – a legacy that is still present in contemporary biomedicine. Weaving Virdi's own experiences together with her exploration into the fascinating history of deafness cures, "Hearing Happiness" is a powerful story that America needs to hear.

About the Author

Jaipreet Virdi is assistant professor of history at the University of Delaware.