The Undesirables : The Law that Locked Away a Generation

The Undesirables : The Law that Locked Away a GenerationThrough the early twentieth century, the British Government locked away over 50,000 innocent people. Their `crimes'? Being poor and unyielding. This is their story. 'Staggering. Wise's book bristles with injustices.'Sunday Telegraph, *****By 1950, an estimated 50,000 people had been deemed `defective' by the British government and detained indefinitely under the 1913 Mental Deficiency Act. Their `crimes' were various: women with children born out of

Through the early twentieth century, the British Government locked away over 50,000 innocent people. Their `crimes'? Being poor and unyielding. This is their story. 'Staggering. Wise's book bristles with injustices.'�Sunday Telegraph, *****By 1950, an estimated 50,000 people had been deemed `defective' by the British government and detained indefinitely under the 1913 Mental Deficiency Act. Their `crimes' were various: women with children born out of wedlock; rebellious teenagers caught shoplifting; those with epilepsy, hearing impairments and chronic illnesses who had struggled in school; and many who were simply `different'. Forcibly removed from their families and confined to a shadow world of specialist facilities in the countryside, they were hidden away and forgotten - out of sight, out of mind. Through painstaking archival research, award-winning historian Sarah Wise shines a light on this shameful chapter. Piecing together the lives irrevocably changed by this devastating legislation, The Undesirables provides a compelling study of how early twentieth-century attitudes to class, gender and disability resulted in a nationwide scandal - and how they continue to shape social policy to this day. 'The heartrending stories Sarah Wise has unearthed beggar belief. beautifully researched and truly compelling.'�Catherine Bailey, author of�Black Diamonds