Why I Burned My Book and Other Essays on Disability
By Paul Longmore
Below is an excerpt from a review by John Vickrey Van Cleve
"Over the course of an academic career, it's fairly common to publish a book or two, write an occasional article for specialized journals, and teach classes in a narrowly circumscribed field. These milestones are not generally difficult to achieve, but their significance is elusive. Few of us publish work that creates new paradigms or that leads to changes in public or private behavior. Perhaps our students reconsidered long-held beliefs or discovered new ways of interpreting their world, but in most cases we do not know. Looking back on three pleasurable decades in academia, therefore, I wonder whether my career has had an impact, whether it has meaning beyond personal gratification. Paul Longmore need not confront this painful question: in fewer than twenty years as a university historian, he has altered the practices of his chosen profession, and he has affected attitudes and institutional behavior nationwide."
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