[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 ... Read moredocumentary 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
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