Ambassadors of Social Progress - (Niu Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies) by Maria Cristina Galmarini (Hardcover)

About the Book

"This book discusses the ways in which blind activists from the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe entered the postwar international blind movement. It analyzes the intersectionality of disability and politics during the Cold War and the ways in which socialist disability activism was rooted in the socialist system of welfare"--

Book Synopsis

Ambassadors of Social Progress examines the ways in which blind activists from the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe entered the postwar international disability movement and shaped its content and its course. Maria Cristina Galmarini shows that the international work of socialist blind activists was defined by the larger politics of the Cold War and, in many respects, represented a field of competition with the West in which the East could shine. Yet, her study also reveals that socialist blind politics went beyond propaganda. When socialist activists joined the international blind movement, they initiated an exchange of experiences that profoundly impacted everyone involved. Not only did the international blind movement turn global disability welfare from philanthropy to self-advocacy, but it also gave East European and Soviet activists a new set of ideas and technologies to improve their own national movements.

By analyzing the intersection of disability and politics, Ambassadors of Social Progress enables a deeper, bottom-up understanding of cultural relations during the Cold War. Galmarini significantly contributes to the little-studied history of disability in socialist Europe, and ultimately shows that disability activism did not start as an import from the West in the post-1989 period, but rather had a long and meaningful tradition that was rooted in the socialist system of welfare and needed to be reinvented when this system fell apart.

Review Quotes

In our polarized world, it is perhaps unsurprising that scholars are increasingly looking to the past to understand how previous generations navigated international tensions and platformed their ideo- logical position on the world stage. In her widely researched and lucidly argued book, Maria Cristina Galmarini demonstrates how a focus on the socialist world can help us to rethink existing narratives about international disability politics and highlights the ways in which much contemporary disability activism is nonetheless indebted to the socialist experience.

-- "The Russian Review"

About the Author

Maria Cristina Galmarini is Associate Professor of History at William & Mary. She is the author of The Right to Be Helped, and she is the winner of the 2018 Disability History Association's Award for Best Published Article.