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Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum

by (Legacy Lit)

(681 reviews)

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In the tradition of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, this New York Times bestseller is a page-turning account of one of the nation's last segregated asylums... "a book that left me breathless" (Clint Smith).

For centuries, Black patients have been absent from our history books. Madness transports readers through the ninety-three-year history of Crownsville Hospital, one of the last segregated asylums with surviving records and a campus that still stands to this day in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. Antonia Hylton blends the intimate tales of patients and employees whose lives were shaped by Crownsville with a decade-worth of investigative research and archival documents. Madness chronicles the stories of Black families whose mental health suffered as they tried, and sometimes failed, to find safety and dignity. Hylton also grapples with her own family's experiences with mental illness, and the secrecy and shame that it reproduced for generations.

As Crownsville Hospital grew from an antebellum-style work camp to a tiny city sitting on 1,500 acres, the institution became a microcosm of America's evolving battles over slavery, racial integration, and civil rights. Hylton traces the legacy of slavery to the treatment of Black people's bodies and minds in our current mental healthcare system. It is a captivating and heartbreaking meditation on how America decides who is sick or criminal, and who is worthy of our care or irredeemable.

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  • We started tracking this book on November 14, 2023.
  • This book was $16.99 when we started tracking it.
  • The price of this book has changed 11 times in the past 688 days.
  • The current price of this book is $11.99 last checked 19 hours ago.
  • This lowest price this book has been offered at in the past year is $2.99.
  • The lowest price to date was $2.99 last reached on July 7, 2025.
  • This book has been $2.99 2 times since we started tracking it.
  • The highest price to date was $16.99 last reached on July 9, 2025.
  • This book has been $16.99 6 times since we started tracking it.

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Additional Info

  • Publication Date: January 23, 2024
  • Text-to-Speech: Disabled
  • Lending: Disabled
  • Print Length: 329 Pages
  • File Size: 244 KB

We last verified the price of this book about 19 hours ago. At that time, the price was $11.99. This price is subject to change. The price displayed on the Amazon.com website at the time of purchase is the price you will pay for this book. Please confirm the price before making any purchases.