Dimensions
153 x 234 x 37mm
In this profoundly humane history, John Donvan and Caren Zucker tell the whole story of autism - from the small Mississippi town where Donald Triplett, the first child to be diagnosed the condition still lives today to the classrooms, laboratories, and courts where essential questions concerning autism have been battled over. This is, above all, the story of families fighting for a place in the world for their children: women like Ruth Sullivan, who rebelled against a medical establishment that blamed mothers for causing autism, fathers who pushed scientists to dig harder for treatments, and parents who forced schools to accept their children. But many others played starring roles too: doctors like Leo Kanner, who pioneered our understanding of autism, and those with autism, like Temple Grandin and Ari Ne'eman, who explained their inner worlds and championed a philosophy of 'neurodiversity'.
By turns intimate and panoramic, In a Different Key takes us on a journey from an era when families were shamed and children were condemned to institutions, to one in which parents and people with autism push not simply for inclusion, but for a new understanding of autism: as difference rather than disability.
'Fast-paced and far-reaching . . . this is an important missing piece to the conversation about autism; no one trying to make sense of the spectrum should do so without reading this book.' Andrew Solomon, author of Far from the Tree
'This meticulously researched book leads us deeply into the history of autism and brings to life the colourful personalities and conflicting ideas that deepen the fascination of autism.' Uta Frith, Emeritus Professor of Cognitive Development at University College London
