Fools and Idiots?

Irina Metzler is Research Fellow in the Department of History at Swansea University

• 1 Pre-/conceptions: problems of definition and historiography2 From morio to fool: semantics of intellectual disability3 Cold complexions and moist humors: natural science and intellectual disability4 The infantile and the irrational: mind, soul and intellectual disability5 Non-consenting adults: laws and intellectual disability6 Fools, pets and entertainers: socio-cultural considerations of intellectual disability7 Reconsiderations: rationality, intelligence and human statusIndex

‘For this meticulous work in organizing evidence and arguments presented by scholars in multiple fields and languages, and focused on numerous geographies (though with a special bias towards England), specialists in the fields of disability, madness, folly, reason and unreason, and even childhood will find this work to be invaluable. This book is an opening gambit, not a definitive answer in the field, but it is a gambit for which future scholars will be very grateful indeed.’Anne M. Koenig, University of South Florida'A superbly researched addition to a largely unexplored field.' Disability Studies Quarterly