The Woman Who Walked into the Sea; Huntington's and the Making of a Genetic Disease
, by Alice Wexler; Foreword by Nancy S. WexlerNote: Supplemental materials are not guaranteed with Rental or Used book purchases.
- ISBN: 9780300158618 | 0300158610
- Cover: Trade Paper
- Copyright: 1/26/2010
When Phebe Hedges, a woman in East Hampton, New York, walked into the sea in 1806, she made visible the historical experience of a family affected by the dreaded hereditary disorder of movement, mind, and mood her neighbors called St. Vitus's dance and doctors named Huntington's chorea and, later, Huntington's disease. In this first history of Huntington's in America, Alice Wexler uses Huntington's as a lens to explore the changing meanings of heredity, disability, stigma, and medical knowledge in the community as well as in the clinic. Book jacket.