The Undesirables

‘Is there any miscarriage of justice more grievous than a badly framed law? The historian Sarah Wise makes a powerful case for the prosecution in The Undesirables, a staggering study of 1913’s largely forgotten Mental Deficiency Act… Wise’s book bristles with injustices.’ —Sunday Telegraph, *****

‘Social historian Sarah Wise has written an important, shocking book in The Undesirables: The Law That Locked Away a Generation… Wise throws light on a shameful national scandal.’ —Independent, Books of the Month

’The Undesirables is as compelling as it is shocking… It is impossible not to feel outraged by this history of wasted lives. Wise does not shy away from calling to account the authorities who enforced the Mental Deficiency Act… as well as the wider public, for allowing this grave social injustice to happen.’ —History Today

‘Superb. The heartrending stories Sarah Wise has unearthed beggar belief… beautifully researched and truly compelling.’ —Catherine Bailey, author of Black Diamonds

‘You will have heard about Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries… How surprised would you be to discover that a comparable system operated in Britain during the 20th century?… Brace yourself for The Undesirables, Sarah Wise’s sprawling, shocking study of the impact of the 1913 Mental Deficiency Act.’ —The Times

‘A masterpiece of historical research. Sarah Wise’s exposure of the ways in which we treated so many people a century ago, and still many in recent years, begs the question of who is the most morally defective.’ —Danny Dorling, author of Shattered Nation

‘I have long been a fan of Sarah Wise and was eager to get my hands on The Undesirables… I found myself shaking my head in anger at the histories of people locked away under the 1913 Mental Deficiency Act. With her usual panache, Wise manages to find humanity in the darkest places and tells an important story with understanding and wit.’ —Emily Cockayne, History Today, Book of the Year

‘Sarah Wise’s piercing social history of the Mental Deficiency Act… Sarah Wise demonstrates shrewdly how eugenic justifications for the Mental Deficiency Act faded and the law became a tool… The government has never offered an apology to the thousands detained. This powerful book might offer a step in that direction.‘ —TLS 

Sarah Wise is a social historian and visiting professor at the University of California’s London Study Centre. Her previous books include Inconvenient People: Lunacy, Liberty and the Mad-Doctors in Victorian England and The Blackest Streets: The Life and Death of a Victorian Slum.