Madness Audiobook By Antonia Hylton cover art

Madness

Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum

 Preview

Audible Standard 30-day free trial

Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection of titles.
Yours as long as you’re a member.
Get unlimited access to bingeable podcasts.
Standard auto renews for $8.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Madness

By: Antonia Hylton
Narrated by: Antonia Hylton
Try Standard free

$8.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $25.19

Buy for $25.19

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, New York Times bestselling author of How The Word Is Passed

"Fascinating." —The New York Times

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's 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.

USA Today Bestseller

National Indie Bestseller

Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Books of the Year

ELLE Magazine's Best (and Most Anticipated) Nonfiction Books of 2024

Entertainment Weekly’s Best Books to Read 2024

An Amazon “Best Book of the Year” African American Studies Black & African American Black Creators Specific Demographics Psychology & Mental Health United States Racism & Discrimination Mental Health Americas Social Sciences Thought-Provoking History Psychology Heartfelt Inspiring

Listen: What Antonia Hylton wants listeners to know about madness

Madness
'What do I hope you will learn from this important history?…'
-0.00
  • Madness
  • 'What do I hope you will learn from this important history?…'
Compelling Historical Account • Well-researched Content • Excellent Narration • Important Untold History

Highly rated for:

All stars
Most relevant
Thank you for honoring those who were at Crownsville and telling their story! Thank you for inspiring us to do the right things in the future!

Thank you!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Definitely a good story. The author does a good job of pulling everything together. The ability to meet with the families and staff and share their story is wonderful. I wish there were more details about specific people, but they just don’t exist.

Jim Crow Era Assylum

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is the story of Crownsville State Hospital in Maryland, an institution for mentally ill Blacks that for most of its history was an underfunded and poorly administered dumping ground in the guise of a hospital. It housed not only psychiatric patients, but persons with other disabilities, criminals, and more generally Blacks who for whatever reason — legitimate or not — crossed paths with law enforcement. It is a horrific story of abuse, neglect, racial stereotyping, and general disregard for people who desperately needed support and expert care, but who were often brutalized by a system supposedly designed to benefit them. This institution existed until the early 21st century. Sadly, it’s just one example of similar institutions around the country. And, though to a much lesser degree, is an indictment of some systems and institutions (large and small) currently serving persons with disabilities, especially minorities, that continue to be underfunded, poorly staffed, and often incapable of providing expert care to their residents/patients.

Jim Crow Lives

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This book was knowledgeable and very heavy. I’ve worked in the mental health field for almost 12 years and never heard about this. Please read if you’re in the field. It’s sad that parts of this book is still alive today.

Great read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
well researched, well told. unfortunate truth about our country and how it treats patients and mental health facilities, especially black patients probably to this day

madness was very informative

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews