1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910456034803321

Autore

Nelson Claudia

Titolo

Little strangers [[electronic resource] ] : portrayals of adoption and foster care in America, 1850-1929 / / Claudia Nelson

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Bloomington, : Indiana University Press, c2003

ISBN

1-282-07206-4

9786612072062

0-253-10557-9

0-253-10980-9

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (225 p.)

Disciplina

362.73/4/0973

Soggetti

Adoption - United States - History

Orphans - United States - History

Adoption in literature

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

The 1850s and their echoes : two case studies -- Money talks : the displaced child, 1860-1885 -- Melodrama and the displaced child, 1886-1906 -- Metaphor and the displaced child, 1886-1906 -- Adoption and women, 1907-1918 -- Adoption up to date : the rhetoric of mass individuality, 1919-1929.

Sommario/riassunto

When Massachusetts passed America's first comprehensive adoption law in 1851, the usual motive for taking in an unrelated child was presumed to be the need for cheap labor. But by 1929 -- the first year that every state had an adoption law -- the adoptee's main function was seen as emotional. Little Strangers examines the representations of adoption and foster care produced over the intervening years. Claudia Nelson argues that adoption texts reflect changing attitudes toward many important social issues