Children and Youth in Adoption, Orphanages, and Foster Care: A Historical Handbook and Guide

(Hardback)

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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.

Reviews

[A]skeland has done an admirable job of giving depth and scope to this complex and all-too-often neglected aspect of American childhood. Highly recommended. Collections with a focus on family studies, legal studies, social work, and teacher education, serving lower-level undergraduates and above; public libraries. * Choice *
Few people understand better than adoptees and historians that unobstructed access to the documentary record is an elemental ingredient of narrative truth. In fact, few controversies make it clearer than the debate over sealed records that history itself, both personal and social, is at stake for us all.This collection offers tangible evidence that the history of adoption is gaining traction as a research field with considerable appeal to scholars, teachers, and general audiences alike.[a] valuable contribution to the historical literature, and it will help us to imagine and interpret the diversity of past kinship with greater accuracy, empathy, and creativity. The fact that adoption history can be such a fresh and original focus of historical inquiry early in the twenty-first century suggests that the right revolution of the post-1945 era is enduring and continues to profoundly alter the geography of the past. * Adoption Quarterly *
The main value of this book is the synthesis of a great deal of information available in other sources into historical periods and topical categories. The book will probably be of most interest to child welfare practitioners, prospective foster and adoptive parents, and undergraduates who know little about the history of orphanages, foster care and adoption. * Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare *

Author Bio

LORI ASKELAND is Associate Professor, Department of English, Wittenberg University, Ohio. She is the author of numerous articles on adoption and foster care, children and literature, encyclopedia articles on childhood, family, and marriage, and the editor of several books.