Constructing Disability After the Great War: Blind Veterans in the Progressive Era

＂World War I created thousands of blinded American veterans--and unleashed a metaphorical tug of war over the meanings of blindness, citizenship, and martial manhood. Evan P. Sullivan explores the ways that veterans and civilians determined the meanings of blindness in the shadows of the Great War and the destruction it caused. American culture used blind veterans to appeal to emotions and passion. Soldiers blinded outside of combat provided fodder for inspirational stories aimed at sighted readers. These veterans worked to become productive members of society even as ableism propagated by their sighted fellow citizens pigeonholed their unique life experiences into a collection of cultural tropes. Sullivan unearths the complex lives of blind soldiers and veterans and their families to reveal how they confronted barriers, gained an education, earned a living, and managed their self-image as men while continually exposed to the public’s opinion of their success and failures＂--

Evan P. Sullivan is an assistant professor of history at SUNY Adirondack.