The Jake Walk Blues (el. knyga) (skaityta knyga) | knygos.lt

Aprašymas

When the patent medicine Jamaica Ginger was tainted with a toxic chemical during the Great Depression, over 50,000 people in the USA suffered paralysis or death, leading to widespread disability and social stigma. Bringing together social, cultural, and political contexts, Stephen E. Mawdsley presents the first comprehensive history of Jamaica Ginger Paralysis. He argues that serious federal regulatory and policy failures during the 1920s created an opportunity for unscrupulous manufacturers to experiment with novel chemicals and adulterate the patent medicine. Although marginalised, survivors and their allies demonstrated resilience by raising awareness, forming collectives, lobbying the government, and attempting to destigmatize their condition. Drawing on a combination of oral history, disability studies, historical musicology, and social history methodologies, Mawdsley considers the agency of survivors and the pervasive representations of the outbreak in popular culture. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.