Description
Book SynopsisOffers a fascinating history of a once devastating social problem
Trade Review"
Abandoned is a smart, well-written book that makes wonderful use of extensive primary sources and successfully engages the reader." * New York History *
"Julie Miller's deeply researched book on foundlings in nineteenth-century New York City fills a long-standing lacunae in the history of dependent children." * Journal of American History *
"Highly recommended." * Choice *
"From Moses to Harry Potter, the stories of abandoned children have always intrigued us, even when we lack humane responses to their situation. In this well-written and insightful book, Miller provides access to the experience of children in the past, as well as the complex world of public and private charities, municipal reformers, clergy, and physicians who interacted with them in nineteenth-century New York City" -- Joan Jacobs Brumberg,author of Kansas Charley: The Story of a 19th-Century Boy Murderer
"Meticulously researched, compellingly written,
Abandoned is a highly original study of an inexplicably understudied topic: child abandonment in the nineteenth-century American city. This important book provides a powerful corrective to excessively romanticized views of childhood in the past." -- Steven Mintz,author of Huck's Raft: A History of American Childhood
Table of ContentsList of Tables Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction 1 "Children of Accident and Mystery": Foundlings in History and Literature2 "New York as a Nursing Mother": Foundlings in the Antebellum City 3 "The Murder of the Innocents": New York Discovers Its Foundlings 4 "The Basket at the Door": The Foundling Asylums Open 5 "Out-Heroding Herod": The Foundlings and the Revolutionary 6 The End of the Foundling Asylums 7 Conclusion: The Foundling Disappears-Almost Notes Index About the Author
