A Home for Every Child: The Washington Children's Home Society in the Progressive Era

by Patricia Susan Hart

Overview

Adoption has been a politically charged subject since the Progressive Era, when it first became an established part of child welfare reform. In A Home for Every Child, Patricia Susan Hart looks at how, when, and why modern adoption practices became a part of child welfare policy.

The Washington Children’s Home Society (now the Children’s Home Society of Washington) was founded in 1896 to place children into adoptive and foster homes as a means of dealing with child abuse, neglect, and homelessness. Hart reveals why birth parents relinquished their children to the Society, how adoptive parents embraced these vulnerable family members, and how the children adjusted to their new homes among strangers.

Debates about nature versus nurture, fears about immigration, and anxieties about race and class informed child welfare policy during the Progressive Era. Hart sheds new light on that period of time and the social, cultural, and political factors that affected adopted children, their parents, and administrators of pioneering institutions like the Washington Children’s Home Society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780295996844
Publisher:	University of Washington Press
Publication date:	07/20/2015
Series:	Emil and Kathleen Sick Book Series in Western History and Biography
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.81(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Patricia Susan Hart is associate professor of journalism and American studies at the University of Idaho.

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction: Taking a Chance on the Pacific Northwest

1. Seeking Alternatives to Institutional Care

2. Child Relinquishment: The Last Best Hope

3. Sorted, Boarded, and Reformed: Coming into the Care of WCHS

4. Completing God's Plan and Competing Desires: Negotiating Adoptive Parenthood

5. Biology, Botany, and Belonging

6. Traveling Children: Placement, Re-placement, and Return

Conclusion: A Home for Every Child: The Elusive Promise

Appendix

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index

What People are Saying About This

Barbara Melosh

"Poignant testimony from children and adoptive parents brings to life Hart's careful and nuanced interpretation."

Ellen Herman

"The compelling stories in A Home for Every Child testify at once to the irresistible allure of reform and the stubborn centrality of poverty in the history of adoption and social welfare."

Stephanie Coontz

"Hart's thoroughly researched account of the changing policies and practice of child placement sheds new light on current foster care dilemmas. An excellent contribution both to Northwest history and to the national history of adoption."

Editorial Reviews

"A lucid and engaging history . . . an essential contribution to the literature on child dependency, foster care, and adoption. Hart . . . made it clear that the assumptions implicit in contemporary policy discussions . . . have a long history."

Reviews in American History - Alice Hearst

"A smooth and informative narrative on the history of this pioneering Pacific northwest home placement society and a balanced treatment of its achievements and limitations."—Xi Chen, Pacific Northwest Quarterly, Win. 2011/2012

"A lucid and engaging history . . . an essential contribution to the literature on child dependency, foster care, and adoption. Hart . . . made it clear that the assumptions implicit in contemporary policy discussions . . . have a long history."—Alice Hearst, Reviews in American History, June 2012

"Helps to round out historical knowledge of child-saving practices in the period before the full professionalization of social work. . . . a fascinating and in-depth study of the multiple actors and institutions that shaped adoption practices."—Felice Batlan, Social Service Review, March 2012

"[A]s a history of a movement that remains with us today, the book is fascinating."—Ann Patricia Payton, Columbia, Summer 2011

From the Publisher

"Helps to round out historical knowledge of child-saving practices in the period before the full professionalization of social work. . . . a fascinating and in-depth study of the multiple actors and institutions that shaped adoption practices."

Social Service Review - Felice Batlan

"[A]s a history of a movement that remains with us today, the book is fascinating."

Columbia - Ann Patricia Payton

"A smooth and informative narrative on the history of this pioneering Pacific northwest home placement society and a balanced treatment of its achievements and limitations."

Pacific Northwest Quarterly - Xi Chen