A Place of Their Own: Creating the Deaf Community in America:
As a student of American Sign Language and the Deaf community I have read many books on the subject. A Place of Their Own: Creating the Deaf Comminity in America is an excellent book in which to find details that you just don't find in many other places. It covers Deaf history, the people and places that influenced the Deaf community and the reasons for the importance of the Deaf community. This isn't a book that promotes or promises a "Utopian Deafland" it gives a realistic look at the the lives of Deaf... more info
A must for all who study Deaf Culture:
There are not a lot of resources on the history of Deaf culture but this one does the trick. Taking you from Biblical referances to present day, it is easy to read, yet thought provoking. I highly recommend it. I only give it 4 stars because, again, this is a one of a kind in its field and I hope some day there will be a more variety and a better comparison between texts.
All this talk of disease...:
For everyone who is interested in this book, let it first be said that I think many people interested and involved in the deaf community would find it appaling that deafness is being treated as a "sin" or and "error" in humans. While not all people may agree with me on this point, I think it is very important to watch your comments when referring to these books. While Van Cleve uses historical analysis in his work, it fails to account for any positive deaf cultured view of the situation. Those involved in... more info
Excellent book on the cultural/social history of the deaf:
For a long time I have been searching for such book like this! It is excellent resources for the people, who are interested to learn American Sign Language, to become aware of richly deaf cultural/social history. The authors know where to find such wealthy of information, yet their writings are brevity along with several examples of where the deaf people have been interacted in order to preserve their cultural-linguistic connections. I highly recommended this book to the education and medical personnel to... more info
