“Eastoe has produced a thoughtful, generous, and rich monograph that is well informed and deserves a wide readership beyond the academy. Above all, she raises important questions around how health and welfare systems approach the blurred divisions between acute and long-term care, which are as relevant today as they were in the nineteenth century.” (Louise Hide, Victorian Studies, Vol. 64 (3), 2022)“Idiocy, Imbecility and Insanity in Victorian Society starts with a stated goal to challenge works that emphasize narratives of repression and violence in the asylum. This is grounded in a both a desire to find the complexity of the patient experience and in the fact that the records do not record much explicit abuse at Caterham.” (Amy Milne-Smith, Journal of British Studies, Vol. 60 (2), April, 2021)