The Imperfect Historian

Winner of the DHA 2014 Outstanding Publication Award. Since the end of the 20th century, «disability» has become a new and effective research instrument. One of the most important fields that currently make use of «disability» as an analytical tool is history. In this collection of historical essays the editors have assembled innovative methodological approaches for doing disability history as well as new and inspiring case-studies. The book is structured into four main parts: Challenging methodologies, power and identity, travelling knowledge and emerging geographies. In close reference to on-going theoretical discussions it not only contributes heavily to the understanding of how and why «disability» became a problem for human societies. At the heart of the reader one also finds the preoccupation of promoting the potentiality of «disability» for future historical research.

Sebastian Barsch is post-doctoral researcher at the University of Cologne (Germany). Anne Klein is lecturer/researcher at the University of Cologne and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Bonn (Germany). Pieter Verstraete is assistant professor for the History of Education at the Katholieke Universeit Leuven (Belgium). Next to other research in history they share an interest in the history of disability, power and identity.