Strangers and kin : the American way of adoption / Barbara Melosh.

By:

Melosh, Barbara

Publication details: Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2002.Description: x, 326 p. ; 25 cmISBN:

0674009126 (alk. paper)

Subject(s):

DDC classification:

362.73/4/0973 21

LOC classification:

HV875.55 .M444 2002

Contents:

1. Wanted-A Child To Raise as Our Own: Claiming Strangers as Kin -- 2. Families by Design: "Fitness" and "Fit" in the Creation of Kin -- 3. The "Best Solution": Adoption Embraced -- 4. Redrawing the Boundaries: Transracial and International Adoption -- 5. "Tell It Slant": Adoption and Disclosure -- 6. Adoption Challenged: Beyond the Best Solution.

Summary: Publisher description: Strangers and Kin is the history of adoption, a quintessentially American institution in its buoyant optimism, generous spirit, and confidence in social engineering. An adoptive mother herself, Barbara Melosh tells the story of how married couples without children sought to care for and nurture other people's children as their own. It says much about the American experience of family across the twentieth century and our shifting notions of kinship and assimilation. Above all, it speaks of real people striving to make families out of strangers. In the early twentieth century, childless adults confronted orphanages reluctant to entrust their wards to the kindness of strangers. By the 1930s, however, the recently formed profession of social work claimed a new expertise--the science and art of child placement--and adoption became codified in law. It flourished in the United States, reflecting our ethnic diversity, pluralist ideals, and pragmatic approach to family. Then, in the 1960s, as the sexual revolution reshaped marriage, motherhood, and women's work, adoption became a less attractive option and the number of adoptive families precipitously declined. Taking this history into the early twenty-first century, Melosh offers unflinching insight to the contemporary debates that swirl around adoption: the challenges to adoption secrecy; the ethics and geopolitics of international adoption; and the conflicts over transracial adoption. This gripping history is told through poignant stories of individuals, garnered from case records long inaccessible to others, and captures the profound losses and joys that make adoption a lifelong process. Barbara Melosh is Professor of English and History at George Mason University.

Holdings ( 1 )
Title notes ( 3 )

Holdings
Item type	Current library	Shelving location	Call number	Copy number	Status	Date due	Barcode
Book	NMC Library	Stacks	HV875.55 .M444 2002 (Browse shelf(Opens below))	1	Available		33039000693928

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Previous	HV875.55 .K43 2009 Adopting the hurt child : hope for families with special-needs kids : a guide for parents and professionals /	HV875.55 .K45 2015 Telling the truth to your adopted or foster child : making sense of the past /	HV875.55 .M42 2010 Family matters : adoption and foster care in children's literature /	HV875.55 .M444 2002 Strangers and kin : the American way of adoption /	HV875.55 .M643 2002 A sealed and secret kinship : the culture of policies and practices in American adoption /	HV875.55 .P47 2011 Adoption nation : how the adoption revolution is transforming our families-- and America /	HV875.55 .S66 1992 When home is no haven : child placement issues /	Next

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Publisher description: Strangers and Kin is the history of adoption, a quintessentially American institution in its buoyant optimism, generous spirit, and confidence in social engineering. An adoptive mother herself, Barbara Melosh tells the story of how married couples without children sought to care for and nurture other people's children as their own. It says much about the American experience of family across the twentieth century and our shifting notions of kinship and assimilation. Above all, it speaks of real people striving to make families out of strangers. In the early twentieth century, childless adults confronted orphanages reluctant to entrust their wards to the kindness of strangers. By the 1930s, however, the recently formed profession of social work claimed a new expertise--the science and art of child placement--and adoption became codified in law. It flourished in the United States, reflecting our ethnic diversity, pluralist ideals, and pragmatic approach to family. Then, in the 1960s, as the sexual revolution reshaped marriage, motherhood, and women's work, adoption became a less attractive option and the number of adoptive families precipitously declined. Taking this history into the early twenty-first century, Melosh offers unflinching insight to the contemporary debates that swirl around adoption: the challenges to adoption secrecy; the ethics and geopolitics of international adoption; and the conflicts over transracial adoption. This gripping history is told through poignant stories of individuals, garnered from case records long inaccessible to others, and captures the profound losses and joys that make adoption a lifelong process. Barbara Melosh is Professor of English and History at George Mason University.