Assimilation and Pluralism

Abstract

This is a well-written and well-documented book that focuses on the social and cultural history of deaf people during the first half of the 20th century. The main theme of the book is that during a period of intense assimilation, culturally deaf people struggled with a seemingly contradictory challenge: maintaining a unique cultural and social community while expressing a desire to be accepted as "normal", hardworking, and patriotic citizens. As Burch notes, this "subversive and conservative" strategy, although largely successful in maintaining the deaf cultural community, nevertheless had some unfortunate consequences. In particular, the community's values and norms frequently mirrored the sexism and racism that were prominent features of American society during those years. This book is an enjoyable and educational read, and the author effectively uses primary sources and several case studies to personalize the discussion throughout the book. The reviewer notes a few small problems with the book, such as sometimes inconsistent documentation and unclear chronology, occasional repetitiousness, and a conflict between the title of the book on the title page vs the dust jacket. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved)