Civil disabilities: Citizenship, membership, and belonging. A review

Abstract

Nancy Hirschmann and Beth Linker edited a collection of essays that deal with various topics in the history and current situation of people with disabilities in America. The essays in Civil Disabilities expertly navigate the contours of ableism and citizenship to provide historical and analytical context to the lived experiences of disability in America. While the editors point out and recognise how American scholarship has not adequately developed the concept of citizenship in reference to Americans with disabilities, they draw on Canadian authors and their more nuanced study of citizenship and disability to frame the chapters in this volume. The authors do, however, draw on the rich American literature of citizenship, such as that developed by Martin Luther King and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. This collection of essays in an important step forward in the application of those foundational concepts to the study of disability in America.