Signs of Resistance: American Deaf Cultural History, 1900 to World War II

by Susan Burch

Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2003

A reinterpretation of early 20th century Deaf history, with sign language at its center

During the nineteenth century, American schools for deaf education regarded sign language as the "natural language" of Deaf people, using it as the principal mode of instruction and communication. These schools inadvertently became the seedbeds of an emerging Deaf community and culture. But beginning in the 1880s, an oralist movement developed that sought to suppress sign language, removing Deaf teachers and requiring deaf people to learn speech and lip reading. Historians have all assumed that in the early decades of the twentieth century oralism triumphed overwhelmingly.

Susan Burch shows us that everyone has it wrong; not only did Deaf students continue to use sign language in schools, hearing teachers relied on it as well. In Signs of Resistance , Susan Burch persuasively reinterprets early twentieth century Deaf using community sources such as Deaf newspapers, memoirs, films, and oral (sign language) interviews, Burch shows how the Deaf community mobilized to defend sign language and Deaf teachers, in the process facilitating the formation of collective Deaf consciousness, identity and political organization.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Disability

230 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Susan Burch is an associate professor of American Studies and the director of the Center for the Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicity at Middlebury College. Research and teaching subjects “at the margins” draws Burch’s attention, and particularly the historical impact of race, ethnicity, disability, gender, and material culture on lived experiences in America, Russia, and beyond.

--from the author's website

Reviews

[Emilie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was fairly heavy reading compared to my usual light reading. It told about Deaf people's struggle against restrictive laws and rules, and against the then-popular eugenics movement.

[J. Pearce · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are seeking a good introductory text to US Deaf Cultural History, this is an excellent book to start with.

Burch divides the topic into five sections: Deaf Residential Schools (and the fight against the Oralist movement), The Preservation of Sign Language, Deaf Associations (which included Deaf sports stars), Deaf people in the working world, and Legal Challenges, which focuses both on eugenics and Deaf people's rights to citizenship.

Burch manages to lay out discussions of citizenship, Americanization, and cultural conflict in a way that I found engaging as an historian familiar with the literature, and that I think the average reader of US history will also find easy to follow and interesting.

One of the things I really like about what Burch has done here is that she draws primarily on sources written by Deaf people, such as the Deaf press (primarily The Silent Worker and The Frat) and annual reports from Deaf societies, rather than the work of hearing educators.

Burch also makes a point of highlighting fractures in the Deaf community. She brings up issues of sexism, racism, and class conflict between university educated "elites" and "working men". She also discusses the divide between people who became deaf later in life, and people who were either born deaf or became deaf quiet young. These are all especially highlighted during her discussion of eugenics, as deaf elites approved of "discouraging" congenitally deaf couples from marrying and having children, since this was less likely to affect members of their own group, who were primarily deafened later in childhood.

Overall, I really liked this book. Part of Burch's conclusion left me irritated - I would like to move to the world where every Deaf university student actually *gets* a 'terp rather than having to wait forever, even with the ADA - but other than that I think her research is spot-on, her prose is very engaging, and her work is awesome. I recommend this to everyone.

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a mix for me - a five star read for content, a three for delivery. The depth and breadth of the material is so unbelievable as to make the dryness of the prose forgivable. She reaches almost literary heights in some passages, though, and is obviously one of the modern historians, giving an almost psychological view to the development of a subsegment of society. I look forward to more from Burch!

[Kati · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good. One of the few books to discuss Alice Terry.

[Monique · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good historical look into the details often overlooked or untold about American Deaf history.

[Kati Mitchell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good. One of the few books to discuss Alice Terry.

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish the author would have talked more about the Deaf New Deal experience, but overall a very good book.