In a Different Key: The Story of Autism (2 page)

“This one volume captures the textured and sometimes turbulent story of autism in all of its facets: as a scholarly and scientific endeavor, as a political and legal enterprise, as a social movement. Most especially it embeds these developments within stories of people whose lives defined and shaped the course of autism.
In a Different Key
is authoritative and utterly absorbing.”
—
JUDITH FAVELL,
past president, Developmental Disabilities Division, American Psychological Association

About the Author

JOHN DONVAN
is a multiple Emmy Award-winning correspondent for ABC and the moderator of the Intelligence Squared U.S. debate series. Find him on Twitter at @johndonvan.
CAREN ZUCKER
is a Peabody award-winning television news producer, a twenty-five-year veteran of ABC News, and producer and co-writer of the six-part PBS series “Autism Now.”

Advance Praise for

IN A DIFFERENT KEY

“
In a Different Key
is filled with gripping personal histories that powerfully illustrate the mistakes and malpractices in the diagnosis and treatment of autism; the courage and resilience of those who fought for better treatment and deeper understanding; and the sheer variability of people who are given the autism label and too often lumped together as ‘disabled.’ A fascinating and revealing read, even for those with no personal connection to the topic.”

—
STEPHANIE COONTZ
, author of
The Way We Never Were:
American Families and the Nostalgia Trap

“Bravo to Donvan and brava to Zucker. Comically/tragically, autism’s history is as emotionally dysfunctional—and as beautiful—as it gets. Finally, we all have an exhaustive reckoning.”

—
MICHAEL JOHN CARLEY
, founder, GRASP; author of
Asperger’s from the Inside Out

“Donvan and Zucker delve deep into both the science and the politics of autism across time. They tell the story of the extreme treatments that have been tried, such as administering LSD or electric shocks in the ’60s, to ‘normalize’ these children. They uncover the tragic mercy killing of a teenager with autism by his father, and explore the MMR vaccine-causes-autism theory, named by
TIME
magazine as top of the list of ‘great science frauds.’ This book will make a remarkable contribution to the history of autism.”

—SIMON BARON-COHEN
, author of
The Essential Difference;
director, Autism Research Centre, Cambridge University

“Autism is a shape changer that has continuously resisted being pinned down. This meticulously researched book leads us deeply into the history of autism and brings to life the colorful personalities and conflicting ideas that deepen the fascination of autism.”

—UTA FRITH
, Emeritus Professor of Cognitive Development, University College London

“Autism remains one of the great medical mysteries of our time and this is the first book to fully document the decades of efforts by parents, doctors, and society to deal with it—so far. For, as the authors say, this is a story that is far from over.
In a Different Key
is a monumental piece of journalism that promises to be a classic, a comprehensive baseline for evidence only future research can reveal. It is written with clarity and grace, and with heart, because the authors have both lived with autism in their own families.”

—ROBERT MACNEIL
, former anchor and cofounder of
PBS NewsHour

“This one volume captures the textured and sometimes turbulent story of autism in all of its facets: as a scholarly and scientific endeavor, as a political and legal enterprise, as a social movement. Most especially it embeds these developments within the stories of people whose lives defined and shaped the course of autism.
In a Different Key
is authoritative and utterly absorbing.”

—
JUDITH FAVELL
, past president, Developmental Disabilities Division, American Psychological Association

Published in the United States by Crown Publishers, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.
www.crownpublishing.com

CROWN is a registered trademark and the Crown colophon is a trademark of Penguin Random House LLC.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Donvan, John (John Joseph) 1955– author | Zucker, Caren (Caren Brenda) 1961– author.

Title: In a different key: the story of autism / John Donvan and Caren Zucker.

Description: New York: Crown Publishers, [2016]

Identifiers: LCCN 2015024706 | ISBN 9780307985675 (hardback)

ISBN 9780307985682 (ebook)

Classification: LCC RC553.A88 D67 2016 | DDC 616.85/882—dc23 LC record available at
http://lccn.loc.gov/2015024706

ISBN 9780307985675

eBook ISBN 9780307985682

Cover design by Christopher Brand

v4.1