LEADER 04034nam 2200589Ia 450 001 9910778185303321 005 20221108104450.0 010 $a0-674-04091-0 024 7 $a10.4159/9780674040915 035 $a(CKB)1000000000786868 035 $a(StDuBDS)AH23050801 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000251944 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11239758 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000251944 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10175306 035 $a(PQKB)11644310 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL3300419 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10318412 035 $a(OCoLC)923110586 035 $a(DE-B1597)574442 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780674040915 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC3300419 035 $a(EXLCZ)991000000000786868 100 $a20050809e20062002 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aur||||||||||| 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 10$aStrangers and kin$b[electronic resource] $ethe American way of adoption /$fBarbara Melosh 210 $aCambridge, Mass. ;$aLondon $cHarvard University Press$d2006 215 $a1 online resource (x, 326 p.) 300 $aOriginally published: 2002. 311 $a0-674-00912-6 311 $a0-674-01953-9 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index. 327 $aPreface Introduction 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 Epilogue Notes Index 330 $a'Strangers and Kin' is the history of adoption, a quintessentially American institution in its buoyant optimism, generous spirit and confidence in social engineering. Barbara Melosh tells the story of how married couples without children sought to care for and nurture other people's children as their own. 330 $bStrangers 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 1930's, 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 1960's, 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. 606 $aAdoption$zUnited States$xHistory 606 $aAdoption$zUnited States 615 0$aAdoption$xHistory. 615 0$aAdoption 676 $a362.7340973 700 $aMelosh$b Barbara$01462646 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910778185303321 996 $aStrangers and kin$93671704 997 $aUNINA