Date of Graduation
Spring 2025
Degree
Master of Arts in History
Department
History
Committee Chair
Kathleen Kennedy
Abstract
The Italian social construction of disability reflects a complex interplay between social, religious, political, and religious influences present during the first half of the twentieth century. While Western European and American disability discourse remained similar, those influences unique to Italy resulted in the formation of two distinct disability discourses during the early twentieth century: that of the heroic physically disabled veteran who sacrificed everything for the good of Italy, and the eugenically unfit Italian associated with dependency and uselessness. By combining a theoretical framework that includes critical disability theory with historical methodology, the following thesis demonstrates how the emerging disability culture present in Italy during the first half of the twentieth century evolved due to the influence of the Catholic Church, the spreading eugenics movement, Italy’s participation in World War I, and the Fascist regime. Each sociopolitical influence resulted in changes to the cultural conception of disability, forming cultural attitudes that changed depending on an individual’s ability to contribute to society and adhere to normative social standards.
Keywords
20th century disability, World War I survivors, eugenics, fascism, intellectual disability, Italian psychiatry, physical disability
Subject Categories
Social History
Copyright
© Brandie Crisp Robb
Recommended Citation
Robb, Brandie Crisp, "From the Battlefield to the Asylum: The Social Construction of Disability in Italy, 1900 - 1950" (2025). Graduate Theses/Dissertations. 4048.
https://bearworks.missouristate.edu/theses/4048
