Scapegoat: Why We Are Failing Disabled People

by Katharine Quarmby

Overview

Every few months there's a shocking news story about the sustained, and often fatal, abuse of a disabled person. It's easy to write off such cases as bullying that got out of hand, terrible criminal anomalies or regrettable failures of the care system, but in fact they point to a more uncomfortable and fundamental truth about how our society treats its most unequal citizens. In Scapegoat, Katharine Quarmby looks behind the headlines to question and understand our discomfort with disabled people. Combining fascinating examples from history with tenacious investigation and powerful first person interviews, Scapegoat will change the way we think about disability - and about the changes we must make as a society to ensure that disabled people are seen as equal citizens, worthy of respect, not targets for taunting, torture and attack.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781846273469
Publisher:	Granta Books
Publication date:	06/02/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	480 KB

About the Author

KATHARINE QUARMBY is a campaigning journalist and an award-winning film-maker. She has worked as a producer on BBC Panorama and Newsnight, edited Disability Now magazine, served as a correspondent for the Economist and written for most of the broadsheet newspapers. She was the first British journalist to investigate disability hate crime and her report for Scope, 'Getting Away with Murder', has revolutionised thinking about the issue. Scapegoat is her first book for adults. She won the AMIA International Literature Award for Scapegoat in 2011, and was a finalist for the Paul Foot Award in the same year, for her many years of campaigning journalism on the same subject.
Katharine Quarmby is a campaigning journalist and an award-winning film-maker. She has worked as a producer on BBC Panorama and Newsnight, news edited Disability Now magazine, served as a correspondent for the Economist and written for most of the broadsheet newspapers. She was the first British journalist to investigate disability hate crime and her report for Scope, 'Getting Away with Murder', has revolutionised thinking about the issue. Scapegoat (Portobello 2011) is her first book for adults. She won the AMIA International Literature Award for Scapegoat in 2011, and was a finalist for the Paul Foot Award in the same year, for her many years of campaigning journalism on the same subject.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

This is a stomach-turning book - but it must be read. -  Dominic Lawson, Sunday Times In Scapegoat, Quarmby documents specific crimes in chilling detail puts them into the broader context of violence and prejudice against disabled people. I cannot imagine reading a more important book this year. -  Tom Shakespeare Genuinely authoritative... Quarmby's sobering conclusion is that there needs to be a paradigm shift in the way that disabled people are viewed by society as a whole. -  Paul Cockburn, Scotland on Sunday Katharine Quarmby has studied the plight of disabled people in this country over the past century and gathered her findings into a fireball of a book... A shocking, challenging call to action. -  Alastair Mabbot, Herald
 

Editorial Reviews

This is a stomach-turning book - but it must be read. -  Dominic Lawson, Sunday Times
In Scapegoat, Quarmby documents specific crimes in chilling detail puts them into the broader context of violence and prejudice against disabled people. I cannot imagine reading a more important book this year. -  Tom Shakespeare
Genuinely authoritative... Quarmby's sobering conclusion is that there needs to be a paradigm shift in the way that disabled people are viewed by society as a whole. -  Paul Cockburn, Scotland on Sunday
Katharine Quarmby has studied the plight of disabled people in this country over the past century and gathered her findings into a fireball of a book... A shocking, challenging call to action. -  Alastair Mabbot, Herald
 

From the Publisher