A Place of Their Own: Creating the Deaf Community in America

Rating:
Summary: First-rate work!
Review: A Place of Their Own is quite a good book, really, and the authors are qualified to write on their subject matter. In regards to other reviews of this book: Sorry, but the ones accusing God of schizophrenia are not the authors, but trinitarian Christians. After all, it is trinitarian Christianity which insists that God has three distinct personalities. One of them died and was resurrected by the other. One of them prays to the other and begs the other to be saved. One of them sends another to people, one walks around on earth while the other stays in heaven. The third, I suppose, just kind of flies around being misty and mysterious. Then of course, they will insist that they really don't worship three gods, but one. They further insult the mercy of God by implying that he sent someone else (his son/his self) to die for our sins, and as long as we accept that we are saved. Tell me, why would god require a blood sacrifice as the price of salvation? We can't just repent to God and be forgiven? Someone else has to die for something I did? And let's not even get into the fact that all of humanity is supposed to be stained for something done by someone else eons ago, ...or that accepting that someone else has already paid for my sins means PARTY TIME! I can do whatever I want. A Place of Their Own is a highly readable, accessible work that presents its topic in a clear format. It isn't too long and is a good introduction to the topic. VanCleve and Crouch did a great job.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book on the cultural/social history of the deaf
Review: For a long time I have been searching for such book like this! It is excellent resources for the people, who are interested to learn American Sign Language, to become aware of richly deaf cultural/social history. The authors know where to find such wealthy of information, yet their writings are brevity along with several examples of where the deaf people have been interacted in order to preserve their cultural-linguistic connections. I highly recommended this book to the education and medical personnel to see how the deaf people are evidently happy with their livings without being heavily corrected on their hearing loss.

Rating:
Summary: All this talk of disease...
Review: For everyone who is interested in this book, let it first be said that I think many people interested and involved in the deaf community would find it appaling that deafness is being treated as a "sin" or and "error" in humans. While not all people may agree with me on this point, I think it is very important to watch your comments when referring to these books. While Van Cleve uses historical analysis in his work, it fails to account for any positive deaf cultured view of the situation. Those involved in this culture will tell you that deafness is not a disease or a problem, but part of a human being, and Van Cleve fails to recognize this point, and therefore fails in any attempt to empower the Deaf Community. Whether or not this was his attempt is not as important. We all must be aware of the fact that some people are happy how they are. They dont want their deafness "treated" or "cured" becuase it can't be - it is as much a part of them as your eye color.

Rating:
Summary: All this talk of disease...
Review: For everyone who is interested in this book, let it first be said that I think many people interested and involved in the deaf community would find it appaling that deafness is being treated as a "sin" or and "error" in humans. While not all people may agree with me on this point, I think it is very important to watch your comments when referring to these books. While Van Cleve uses historical analysis in his work, it fails to account for any positive deaf cultured view of the situation. Those involved in this culture will tell you that deafness is not a disease or a problem, but part of a human being, and Van Cleve fails to recognize this point, and therefore fails in any attempt to empower the Deaf Community. Whether or not this was his attempt is not as important. We all must be aware of the fact that some people are happy how they are. They dont want their deafness "treated" or "cured" becuase it can't be - it is as much a part of them as your eye color.