New Books in Technology

Coreen McGuire, "Measuring Difference, Numbering Normal: Setting the Standards for Disability in the Interwar Period" (Manchester UP, 2020)


Listen Later

Measurements, and their manipulation, have been underestimated as crucial historical forces motivating and guiding the way we think about disability.

Using measurement technology as a lens, and examining in particular the measurement of hearing and breathing, Coreen McGuire's book Measuring Difference, Numbering Normal: Setting the Standards for Disability in the Interwar Period (Manchester UP, 2020) draws together several existing discussions on disability, phenomenology, healthcare, medical practice, big data, embodiment, and emerging medical and scientific technologies around the turn of the twentieth century. These are popular topics of scholarly attention but have not, until now, been considered as interconnected topics within a single book. As such, this work connects several important, and usually separate academic subject areas and historical specialisms. The standards embedded in instrumentation created strict, but, ultimately arbitrary thresholds of what is categorised as normal and abnormal. Considering these standards from a long historical perspective reveals how these dividing lines shifted when pushed.

This book is available open access here

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/technology

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

New Books in TechnologyBy New Books Network

  • 5
  • 5
  • 5
  • 5
  • 5

5

2 ratings


More shows like New Books in Technology

View all
This American Life by This American Life

This American Life

90,886 Listeners

New Books in History by Marshall Poe

New Books in History

209 Listeners

New Books in Psychoanalysis by Marshall Poe

New Books in Psychoanalysis

193 Listeners

New Books in Military History by Marshall Poe

New Books in Military History

162 Listeners

New Books in African American Studies by New Books Network

New Books in African American Studies

161 Listeners

New Books in Anthropology by New Books Network

New Books in Anthropology

49 Listeners

New Books in Political Science by New Books Network

New Books in Political Science

63 Listeners

New Books in Sociology by New Books Network

New Books in Sociology

46 Listeners

New Books in Philosophy by New Books Network

New Books in Philosophy

110 Listeners

New Books in Native American Studies by Marshall Poe

New Books in Native American Studies

104 Listeners

New Books in Critical Theory by Marshall Poe

New Books in Critical Theory

143 Listeners

New Books in Intellectual History by New Books Network

New Books in Intellectual History

61 Listeners

The Daily by The New York Times

The Daily

111,862 Listeners

Tech Won't Save Us by Paris Marx

Tech Won't Save Us

523 Listeners

Past Present Future by David Runciman

Past Present Future

321 Listeners