Book review: a new history of autism’s complex evolution may have uncovered Hans Asperger’s wartime secret
In a Different Key focuses on the dark side of autism – with Asperger perhaps revealed as something other than a kindly doctor looking out for his young patients’ best interests
by John Donvan and Caren Zucker
Allen Lane
Is autism having a moment? Two new books examining its history, both more than 500 pages long, would certainly seem to indicate that it is. A few months after the publication of Steve Silberman ’s Samuel Johnson prize-winning Neurotribes, another detailed examination of autism’s complex evolution has appeared in bookshops.
In a Different Key: The Story of Autism covers some of the same ground – the debates about defining and diagnosing a condition that still has no clear biological markers, the consequent anxiety about whether autism is actually on the increase and, if so, what could be the causes and what are the best ways to educate and accommodate people on the spectrum over their lifetime.
Like Silberman, the authors, Caren Zucker and John Donvan, are American journalists who have spent many years researching their book. In 2010 they wrote an excellent article in the Atlantic magazine in which they tracked down one of the first children to be diagnosed with autism in 1943. The fascinating life story of Donald Triplett, now in his 80s, bookends In a Different Key.