Gerald V. O’Brien is Professor and Department Chair of Social Work at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, USA, and author of Framing the Moron: The Social Construction of Feeble-Mindedness in the American Eugenic Era.
Through analyzing the pairing of disease-maker, social body, and other prevalent metaphors in the anti-immigrant, racial, and eugenic discourses in the twentieth century, O'Brien expands our knowledge of the interaction between the concepts of disability and nativism, and makes a noteworthy combination of the two fields for further research. O'Brien's book bridges several major social issues of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American society. Examining the use of various metaphors in oppression of subgroups, the author reveals the underlying discursive models in the reactions of US governments and the general public. - Shu Wan, H-Net Reviews, Humanities & Social Sciences Online.