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Managing the Experience of Hearing Loss in Britain, 1830–1930

  • Book
  • © 2017

Overview

Authors:
  1. Graeme Gooday

    1. School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom

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    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  2. Karen Sayer

    1. School of Arts and Communication, Leeds Trinity University, Leeds, United Kingdom

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    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • All royalties from sale of this book will be given to Action on Hearing Loss and the National Deaf Children’s Society.

  • Examines hearing loss from the perspectives of the hard of hearing, particularly those who lost, or partially lost, their hearing in adulthood, whether or not they used hearing aids

  • Sets a new agenda in a much neglected area of historical writing, providing an easily accessible starting point in the field of hearing loss studies

  • Draws upon histories of technology and material culture, advertising history, gender studies, museum studies, publishing history, institutional history, and disability studies

  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

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Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xx
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Graeme Gooday, Karen Sayer
    Pages 1-16

  3. The Diverse and Changing Categories of Deafness

    • Graeme Gooday, Karen Sayer
    Pages 17-30

  4. Advice for Managing Hearing Loss

    • Graeme Gooday, Karen Sayer
    Pages 31-45

  5. Communicating with Hearing Loss

    • Graeme Gooday, Karen Sayer
    Pages 47-63

  6. Selling and Using Hearing Aids

    • Graeme Gooday, Karen Sayer
    Pages 65-81

  7. Preventing Deafness: Two Medical Approaches

    • Graeme Gooday, Karen Sayer
    Pages 83-99

  8. Institutionally Organizing for Hearing Loss

    • Graeme Gooday, Karen Sayer
    Pages 101-118

  9. Back Matter

    Pages 119-126
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Keywords

About this book

This book looks at how hearing loss among adults was experienced, viewed and treated  in Britain before the National Health Service. We explore the changing status of ‘hard of hearing’ people during the nineteenth century as categorized among diverse and changing categories of ‘deafness’. Then we explore the advisory literature for managing hearing loss, and techniques for communicating with hearing aids, lip-reading and correspondence networks. From surveying the commercial selling and daily use of hearing aids, we see how adverse developments in eugenics prompted otologists to focus primarily on the prevention of deafness. The final chapter shows how hearing loss among First World War combatants prompted hearing specialists to take a more supportive approach, while it fell to the National Institute for the Deaf, formed in 1924, to defend hard of hearing people against unscrupulous hearing aid vendors. This book is suitable for both academic audiences and the general reading public. All royalties from sale of this book will be given to Action on Hearing Loss and the National Deaf Children’s Society.

Reviews

“Categorizing and investigating the experiences of a group defined through individual members’ emotional experience of hearing loss as a loss is a simple yet innovative approach, making this book valuable to the burgeoning field of the history of emotions.” (Coreen McGuire, Technology and Culture, Vol. 61 (4), October, 2020)

“Managing the Experience of Hearing Loss in Britain, 1830-1930 offers a concise overview of a neglected dimension of the history of disability. … it highlights an inherently intriguing topic and provides a welcome impetus for further exploration of the experiences of the hard of hearing.” (Ben Ford, H-Disability, July, 2019)

“The book is readable, engaging, highly informative, and a very valuable first step in bridging a significant gap in our knowledge, which deserves both further research and a wider audience.” (Mike Goldsmith, Isis, Vol. 110 (2), June, 2019)

Authors and Affiliations

  • School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom

    Graeme Gooday

  • School of Arts and Communication, Leeds Trinity University, Leeds, United Kingdom

    Karen Sayer

About the authors

Graeme Gooday is Professor of the History of Science and Technology at the University of Leeds, UK. His specialist research themes include communications, electrification, patenting and gender in the period 1850-1930. He collaborates with various museums in collections-based research, especially the Thackray Museum and its substantial collection of hearing aids.

Karen Sayer is Professor of Social and Cultural History at Leeds Trinity University, UK, and addresses changing conceptualisations of the human and animal body in relation to technology. She works within the interdisciplinary team of the Leeds Centre for Victorian Studies and organised the landmark conference Disability & the Victorians: Confronting Legacies, 2012.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Managing the Experience of Hearing Loss in Britain, 1830–1930

  • Authors: Graeme Gooday, Karen Sayer

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-40686-6

  • Publisher: Palgrave Pivot London

  • eBook Packages: History, History (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-137-40687-3Published: 25 November 2015

  • eBook ISBN: 978-1-137-40686-6Published: 16 September 2017

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XX, 126

  • Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations, 1 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: History of Science, History of Medicine, History of Britain and Ireland, Disability Studies, Modern History

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