Full Description
Adoption and foster care is a new and burgeoning area of historical and interdisciplinary research. Too often, however, birth parents, adoptive parents, foster parents, social workers, and the children themselves have either been ignored or demonized. This comprehensive introductory resource provides an authoritative, yet accessible, examination of adoption and foster care as it has been practiced in the United States.
Within the pages of this volume, the reader will find a complete view of the many individuals and groups involved, as well as a thorough understanding of the various social and economic forces that have contributed to the perceptions of what children are in need of care. Also discussed is the role of orphanages, once the primary institution for children without parents as well as a stopgap measure for poor children needing temporary care. Divided into three major sections, original essays review the practice of adoption, orphanage placement and foster care from the colonial period to the present day. Selected primary documents, including materials by children, as well as an in-depth bibliographic section, provide crucial information and insight for high school and college students. Social workers, journalists, and others will also find much value in this historical overview and guide. Contributors include Elizabeth Bartholet, Marilyn Irvin Holt, Martha Satz, and Claudia Nelson.
Adoption and foster care is a new and burgeoning area of historical and interdisciplinary research. Too often, however, birth parents, adoptive parents and foster parents, social workers, and the children themselves have been either ignored or demonized. This authoritative and accessible work is the first comprehensive introductory resource that gives a fuller portrait of the many individuals and groups that have contributed to the perceptions of what children are in need of care. Also discussed is the role of orphanages, the primary institution for children without parents as well as a stopgap measure for poor children needing temporary care. Divided into three sections, original essays review the practice of adoption, orphanage placement, and foster care from the colonial period to the present day. Selected primary documents, including materials by children, as well as an in-depth bibliography section, provide crucial information and insight for high school and college students. Social workers, journalists, and others will also find much value in this historical overview and guide. Star contributors include Elizabeth Bartholet, Marilyn Irvin Holt, Martha Satz, and Claudia Nelson.
Contents
Series Forward by Miriam Forman-Brunell
Acknowledgements & Dedication
Part I Essays
Informal Adoption, Apprentices, and Indentured Children in the Colonial Era and the New Republic, 1605-1850 by Lori Askeland
Adoption Reform, Orphan Trains, and Child-saving, 1851-1929 by Marilyn Irvin Holt
Science, Social Work, and Bureaucracy: Cautious Developments in Adoption and Foster Care, 1930-1969 by Dianne Creagh
Civil Rights, Adoption Rights: Domestic Adoption and Foster Care, 1970 to the Present by Martha Satz and Lori Askeland
International Adoption by Elizabeth Bartholet
The Orphan in American Children's Literature by Claudia Nelson
Part II Documents
Multicultural Forms of Adoption and Foster Care Before 1850
"Orphan Trains," Child Saving and the Modernization of Adoption Law, 1851-1929
Science and Secrecy: Adoption, Orphanages, and Foster Care, 1930-1969
Comtemporary Issues in Domestic Adoption, 1970- Present
International Adoption Law
Orphans in Literature for American Children
Part III Bibliography
General Adoption and Child Welfare History References and Online Resources
Orphans, Orphanages, and Orphan Stories: Early Forms of Adoption and Fostering in Multicultural and Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Secrecy and Adoption: Infertility, Illegitimacy, Parental Fitness Tests, and the Move to Openess in the 20th Century
Crossing Boundaries: Issues and Controversies in Comtemporary Foster Care and Adoption
Index
Contributors
