Description
Book SynopsisStudies the biopolitics of the mass adoption movement of children and youngsters from Greece to the US starting in the 1950s. The story of these Greek postwar and Cold War adoptions, whose procedures ranged from legal to highly irregular, has never been told or analysed before.
Trade ReviewDrawing on the fields of memory studies, cultural anthropology, Greek history, and international adoption history, Van Steen explores how Cold War anticommunism in post-World War II Greece drove the foreign adoption of Greek children, mainly to the U.S., shedding light on the important role that Eastern Europe played in U.S. adoption history. The book provides an important corrective lens, including statistics that prove how desirable Greek orphans were to U.S. families in the decades after World War II.Sheds light on the important role that Eastern Europe played in U.S. adoption history. The book provides an important corrective lens, including statistics that prove how desirable Greek orphans were to U.S. families in the decades after World War II." - Rachel Rains Winslow, Westmont College
"[Van Steen] has opened a revealing window into the politics, culture, and social practices that predominated in postwar Greece… the author contributes to the nation's collective memory valuable insights into the impact of the civil war upon its most innocent victims. Combining meticulous scholarship with empathy, this seminal study of the selection of children for foreign adoption during the 1950s and 1960s has earned Gonda Van Steen the lasting gratitude of all students of contemporary Greece." - From the Foreword by John O. Iatrides
