Those They Called Idiots traces the little-known lives of people with learning disabilities from the communities of eighteenth-century England to the nineteenth-century asylum and care in today's society. Using evidence from civil and criminal court-rooms, joke books, slang dictionaries, novels, art and caricature, it explores the explosive intermingling of ideas about intelligence and race, while bringing into sharp focus the lives of people often seen as the most marginalised in society.

'[A] magisterial history.' Michael Fitzpatrick, Daily Telegraph

'Simon Jarrett's elegant and provocative book brings into focus for the rst time the history of people with intellectual disabilities over three centuries.' David Turner, Professor of History, Swansea University, and author of Disability in Eighteenth-Century England

'We should be grateful to Simon Jarrett for telling this complex, compelling and frequently troubling story with such tremendous clarity and style. I can't recommend this wonderful book highly enough.' Stephen Unwin, writer, playwright and director