| Title | : | The Radical Lives of Helen Keller (The History of Disability, 1) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0814758134 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780814758137 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 193 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2004 |
Several decades after her death in 1968, Helen Keller remains one of the most widely recognized women of the twentieth century. But the fascinating story of her vivid political life―particularly her interest in radicalism and anti-capitalist activism―has been largely overwhelmed by the sentimentalized story of her as a young deaf-blind girl.
Keller had many lives indeed. Best known for her advocacy on behalf of the blind, she was also a member of the socialist party, an advocate of women's suffrage, a defender of the radical International Workers of the World, and a supporter of birth control―and she served as one of the nation's most effective but unofficial international ambassadors. In spite of all her political work, though, Keller rarely explored the political dimensions of disability, adopting beliefs that were often seen as conservative, patronizing, and occasionally repugnant. Under the wing of Alexander Graham Bell, a controversial figure in the deaf community who promoted lip-reading over sign language, Keller became a proponent of oralism, thereby alienating herself from others in the deaf community who believed that a rich deaf culture was possible through sign language. But only by distancing herself from the deaf community was she able to maintain a public image as a one-of-a-kind miracle.
Using analytic tools and new sources, Kim E. Nielsen's political biography of Helen Keller has many lives, teasing out the motivations for and implications of her political and personal revolutions to reveal a more complex and intriguing woman than the Helen Keller we thought we knew.
The Radical Lives of Helen Keller (The History of Disability, 1) Reviews
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Helen Keller was a red-hot radical who opposed World War 1, supported the Wobblies (the International Workers of the World), and believed in socialism. But you'd never know it if you've only seen "The Miracle Worker" or read one of the hundreds of books pumped out by the Helen Keller industry. Kim Nielson reveals the real Helen Keller. Nielson also brings to the table a more radical disability politics. Disability is not a condition created by disease or accident or birth. Rather, it is imposed by societies that isolate and exclude people by failing to meet the needs of all.
Nielson challenges Keller's disability politics. During the "progressive" era, many white leftists failed to tackle racism, and some even embraced eugenics. Influenced by Alexander Graham Bell (a eugenicist), Keller rejected signing and isolated herself from the Deaf community (actually, communities, since white Deaf people segregated themselves from the Black Deaf community - read Nielsen's excellent "A Disability History of the United States")).
The idea that disability is an unfortunate twist of fate that the individual must "rise above" or "conquer," fits neatly into the bourgeois drama in which the Character drives the Plot forward and determines his or her own Fate. Helen Keller simply adopted the only role open to those going it alone in a capitalist society: she became a star. In the end, she had to downplay her leftwing politics to play this role, to get funding (at one point, from Andrew Carnegie) and to fit in to her role as a good-will ambassador for the United States.
All that said, Helen Keller is still an inspiration. And knowing about her radicalism makes her even more so.. -
I really enjoyed this book. Many of the Helen Keller biographies seem to cover the well known and more superficial aspects of her life. I chose to read THE RADICAL LIVES of Helen Keller because it promised to go beyond surface material, and I was interested in her political positions too. It was a great read. There are some other biographies about her I also plan to read in the future.
