{"product_id":"9780861544554-undesirables","title":"The Undesirables","description":"\u003cmeta content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\" http-equiv=\"Content-Type\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Law that Locked Away a Generation\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe shocking story of how the British government locked up thousands of innocent people – then forgot about them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThrough the early twentieth century, the British Government locked away over 50,000 innocent people. Their ‘crimes’? Being poor and unyielding. This is their story\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA \u003cem\u003eHISTORY TODAY \u003c\/em\u003eBOOK OF THE YEAR\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e'Staggering… Wise's book bristles with injustices.' \u003cem\u003eSunday Telegraph, *****\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy 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’.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eForcibly 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThrough 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, \u003cem\u003eThe Undesirables\u003c\/em\u003e 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e'The heartrending stories Sarah Wise has unearthed beggar belief… beautifully researched and truly compelling.' Catherine Bailey, author of \u003cem\u003eBlack Diamonds\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rarewaves","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41593326862433,"sku":"9780861544554","price":21.16,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0092\/7504\/8033\/files\/orig_27545967.jpg?v=1744049705","url":"https:\/\/www.rarewaves.com\/products\/9780861544554-undesirables","provider":"Rarewaves.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}