‘Passing’ was an objective of the prosthetic limb developed by Benjamin Franklin Palmer. Palmer produced the first patented leg in New Hampshire and he gradually developed a worldwide following for a device that became a must-have accessory for those who wished to blend back into society following the loss of a limb. Palmer aligned his invention with medical progress, but he was also adept at marketing the benefits of his prosthetics in both practical and aesthetic terms. The prosthesis was able to merge with the body, making the wearer ‘whole’ again, physically and mentally, and it could facilitate masculine ideals of sociability, labour and business success. International marketing of his invention created a following for a device that was ‘conspicuously inconspicuous’ and demonstrated that Victorian values and ideals were not limited to Britain and its empire.

This chapter presents the concepts discussed in this book, which is a collection of scholarly essays related to John Mandeville's Travels by scholars in England and France who produce a complex and sometimes contradictory view of the book as an important object of early modern attention, as well as a feature of early modern literary context. The first part of the book provides accounts of the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century travels of the Travels' variable text in its English or 'Insular' versions, along with some account of the epistemological considerations that accompanied its travel to the more pragmatic economic and colonial concerns of the Tudor and Jacobean periods. The second examines the historical discourse on the Turks and Islam in early modern England, Mandevillian geography, and the importance of medieval culture to the understanding of a European Renaissance. The last section is concerned with the invented medium of the commercial theatre.

The highest level of Jewish religious expression is the performance of the mitzvoth, the divine Commandments. This chapter relates to those Commandments that the sages define as inherently 'male'. It describes how the sages attempted to dictate to women the manner of their observance of mitzvot set aside for women alone. The chapter shows that during the Middle Ages, women found a way of their own to relate to the world of mitzvot and keep the Commandments. It also describes the performance of the mitzvot by women and the manner in which they defined and differentiated their femininity by means of the Commandments. Women's exclusion from learning implies that they would not be well versed in the language of prayer in the synagogue. The understanding developed in the consciousness of women that they were the ones who initiated the rituals of the Sabbath and sanctified the holy day.

The French Revolution was generally welcomed by those of a philanthropic disposition. The chapter opens with a cameo role for William Wordsworth who planned a politically radical journal to be called ‘The Philanthropist’. Robert Southey, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Godwin also engaged closely with philanthropy and with how it could transform society. The government’s repressive measures had effectively silenced them by 1795. Friendly Societies and trade unions built the word ‘philanthropic’ into their titles – and continued to do so through the nineteenth century, testimony that philanthropy and mutualism might have cohered. In the 1790s, however, the tide turned against philanthropy. With Britain at war from 1793, it was no time to be saying that you should love all humanity or be a ‘citizen of the world’. The Anti-Jacobin Review and William Cobbett were philanthropy’s most outspoken opponents. They broadened their attack on radicals to turn it against William Wilberforce and others, strongly evangelical, who were campaigning for an end to the slave trade. The clash between supporters and opponents of the slave trade forged a powerful link between evangelicals and philanthropy, their opponents extending their wrath to suggest that evangelical philanthropists were undermining key characteristics of the nation.

This chapter examines the mind-sets that frame twentieth- and early twenty-first-century United Kingdom social policy. These thought processes continue to marginalise deaf people from opportunities for meaningful employment and can be traced to their roots in the Poor Law legislation for England and Wales of 1834. The concept of ‘deserving and undeserving poor’ that underpinned the Poor Law placed deaf people in a legally ambivalent situation that has never adequately been resolved, and so they came to be regarded as ‘deserving’ almost by default because of their inability to hear. Although this legislation was finally abolished upon the creation of a welfare state in 1948, its ethos continues to practically exclude deaf and disabled people from the workplace by emphasising what it is assumed an individual cannot do, rather than on what (s)he can do.

Chapter 9 provides a background to the formation of Yes Equality, a group dedicated to establishing marriage for same-sex couples. This chapter continues with the announcement of the referendum on marriage equality and an assessment of the campaign in the immediate run-up to the referendum.

The British Empire reached the peak of its power and influence during the Victorian era, presenting opportunities to a wide spectrum of entrepreneurs, missionaries, government administrators and adventurers. This chapter examines how disabled white Britons fitted into the imperial matrix by exploring the life histories of three deaf educators and social reformers, John Kitto, George Tait and Jane Groom. As the lives of these three individuals intersected with the workings of the British Empire, this provides an opportunity to consider the intersection between disability and colonialism. As Cleall demonstrates, scholars of disability have often used the language of colonialism to evoke the exclusion, discrimination and subjugation of disabled people by society, following a similar pattern to that used in issues of race.

An overview of the Constitutional Convention which was established to ensure ‘participative democracy’ in considering changes to the Irish Constitution. This chapter examines how in April 2013 delegates overwhelmingly called for a constitutional change to extend civil marriage to same-sex couples and, significantly, to include amendments for parental rights in this regard. The chapter also describes the beginning of a great controversy, popularly referred to as ‘Pantigate’, which placed the issue of marriage equality centre stage in an open debate about homophobia.

There is a potentially bewildering array of sources for historical material culture research – this chapter explains in detail the potentials and the pitfalls of using different kinds of repositories and also where to locate material in a range of environments including museums, galleries, historic houses and institutions. The chapter provides a step-by-step guide to using museum documentation to locate relevant collections and also discusses online catalogues, which are commonly a first port of call for the material culture researcher.

Howard’s fame meant that philanthropy, prison and crime were inextricably linked after his death. The foundation of the Philanthropic Society in 1788, aiming to rescue children likely to fall into crime, further strengthened the link. Robert Young, its founder, had far-reaching ideas for what philanthropy could achieve, testament to the impact of the Enlightenment. On a practical level, the movement for reform of prisons revived in the 1810s, spearheaded by Quakers. One of them, William Allen, started a periodical, The Philanthropist, to advance his ideas and to lament the failure to sustain reform after Howard’s death. Quakers founded the Prison Discipline Society and in the harsher mood of the early nineteenth century promoted use of the treadwheel. By the mid-1830s the state had effectively taken over control of prison, but critics continued to focus their attention on philanthropy for its failures, either because, with solitary confinement, prison was too harsh or because it was too comfortable for prisoners. The chapter ends with a section on the Howard Association, founded in 1866, again with Quaker support. It was the main pressure group though by the end of the century it was being challenged as too conservative.