Though their vision met resistance, the accomplishments of these early advocates for compassionate care of the mentally ill hold many lessons that resonate to this day, as this book makes compellingly clear. The Crusade for Forgotten Souls recounts how these efforts broke the stigma of shame and silence surrounding mental illness, publicized the painful truth about the state's asylums, built support among citizens, and resulted in the first legislative steps toward a modern mental health system that catapulted Minnesota to national leadership and empowered families of the mentally ill and disabled. These reformers overcame barriers of class, ethnicity, and gender to stand behind the governor, who, at a turbulent moment in Minnesota politics, challenged his own party's resistance to reform. Susan Bartlett Foote tells the story of those who made the crusade a success: Engla Schey, the catalyst Reverend Arthur Foote, a modest visionary who guided Unitarians to constructive advocacy Genevieve Steefel, an inveterate patient activist and Geri Hoffner, an intrepid reporter whose twelve-part series for the Minneapolis Tribune galvanized the public. This book chronicles that remarkable undertaking inspired and carried forward by ordinary people under the political leadership of Luther Youngdahl, a Swedish Republican who was the state's governor from 1946 to 1951. She acquired the knowledge and passion that would lead to "The Crusade for Forgotten Souls," a campaign to reform the deplorable condition of mental institutions in Minnesota. She would work among people who were locked away under the shameful label "insane," called inmates-and numbered more than 12,000 throughout the state. In 1940 Engla Schey, the daughter of Norwegian immigrants, took a job as a low-paid attendant at Anoka State Hospital, one of Minnesota's seven asylums. The stirring story of the reform movement that laid the groundwork for a modern mental health system in Minnesota Winner of the 2019 Minnesota Book Award for Minnesota Nonfiction To learn more about how and for what purposes Amazon uses personal information (such as Amazon Store order history), please visit our Privacy notice. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Click "Decline" to reject, or "Customise" to make more detailed advertising choices, or learn more. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. Cookies store or access standard device information such as a unique identifier. Your choice applies to using first-party and third-party advertising cookies on this service. If you agree, we'll also use cookies to complement your shopping experience across the Amazon stores as described in our Cookie notice. We also use these cookies to understand how customers use our services (for example, by measuring site visits) so we can make improvements. We use cookies and similar tools that are necessary to enable you to make purchases, to enhance your shopping experiences and to provide our services, as detailed in our Cookie notice.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |