I think everyone needs to read this book! It is the most fascinating thing I've read all year. We are inclined to think that autism is a recent problem, but this book thoroughly lays out all the compounding factors showing that is not the case. From striking examples in the enlightenment period to the evolution of the definition of autism, it is so clear how this significant variation in thinking was swept under the rug for so long.
Many years past, severely autistic people were left to die, or later institutionalized where they were often killed slowly. Autism, in its current definition, didn't exists until only a few years ago and was previously labeled "childhood schizophrenia" or any one of a myriad of other disorders. People classified as those disorders like Temple Grandin and her "brain damage" are still alive and influencing the public discussion today.
So anytime to wacko anti-vaxxers start spouting that bullshit about how we are in the middle of an autism epidemic and there wasn't any autism a half century ago, know that they are flat wrong. In fact, I think if the anti-vaxx crowd read this book, we'd have a lot fewer idiots in that camp. (I wish.)
The achievements of autistic people through the ages have been significantly under rated, from calculating the mass of earth to the internet and tech, their fingerprints are all over most of our greatest advances. Ever wonder why it seems every great mind from the past was so damn eccentric? It's cause they were likely autistic. Some of the most famous examples being Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, and Nikola Tesla, and many more who hid in the shadows so well that you don't know their names today.
My favorite tidbit from this book is this analogy: Just because a computer isn't running Windows doesn't mean it's not working. (comparing autistic thought to Linux or Apple iOS)
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