David Wright is Wellcome Lecturer in the History of Medicine at the University of Nottingham., Anne Digby is Professor of Social History at Oxford Brookes University.

• Chapter 1 Contexts and Perspectives, Anne Digby; Chapter 2 Mental Handicap in Medieval and Early Modern England, Richard Neugebauer; Chapter 3 Idiocy, the Family and the Community in Early Modern North-East England, Peter Rushton; Chapter 4 Identifying and Providing for the Mentally Disabled in Early Modern london, Jonathan Andrews; Chapter 5 The Psychopolitics of Learning and Disability in Seventeenth-Century Thought, C.F. Goodey; Chapter 6 ‘Childlike in his Innocence’, David Wright; Chapter 7 The Changing Dynamic of Institutional Care, David Gladstone; Chapter 8 Institutional Provision for the Feeble-Minded in Edwardian England, Mark Jachon; Chapter 9 Girls, Deficiency and Delinquency, Pamela Cox; Chapter 10 Family, Community, and State, Mathew Thomson;

'This book helps to fill an enormous gap in social history.' - University of Salford'A good resource for students. It brings together an overview of changing perceptions, terminology, attitudes and provisions over centuries.' - Dorothy Atkinson, The Open University'This book is an excellent resource for anyone involved in supporting people with learning disabilities.' - Nursing Times'Some fascinating and also very moving descriptions.' - Community Care