Kinship by Design: A History of Adoption in the Modern United States PDF
Preview Kinship by Design: A History of Adoption in the Modern United States
Kinship by Design Kinship by Design A History of Adoption in the Modern United States EllEn HErMAn The University of Chicago Press Chicago and london Ellen Herman is professor of history at the University of Oregon. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, ltd., london ©2008 by The University of Chicago All rights reserved. Published 2008 Printed in the United States of America 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 1 2 3 4 5 ISBn-13: 978-0-226-32759-4 (cloth) ISBn-13: 978-0-226-32760-0 (paper) ISBn-10: 0-226-32759-0 (cloth) ISBn-10: 0-226-32760-4 (paper) library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Herman, Ellen, 1957– Kinship by design : a history of adoption in the modern United States / Ellen Herman. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBn-13: 978-0-226-32759-4 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBn-10: 0-226-32759-0 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBn-13: 978-0-226-32760-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBn-10: 0-226-32760-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Adoption—United States—History—20th century. 2. Orphans—United States—History—20th century. I. Title. HV875.55.H47 2008 362.7340973—dc22 2008002077 ¥ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American national Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed library Materials, AnSI Z39.48-1992. The striving to make stability of meaning prevail over the instability of events is the main task of intelligent human effort. john dewey, Experience and Nature, 1925 COnTEnTS Acknowledgments / ix InTrODUCTIOn / Family Making in an Age of Uncertainty / 1 Part i : regulation and interPretation, 1900–1945 OnE / The Perils of Money and Sentiment (and Custom, Accident, Impulse, Intuition, Common Sense, Faith, and Bad Blood) / 21 TwO / Making Adoption Governable / 55 THrEE / rules for realness / 83 Part ii : Standardization and naturalization, 1930–1960 FOUr / Matching and the Mirror of nature / 121 FIVE / The Measure of Other People’s Children / 155 Part iii : difference and damage, 1945–1975 SIx / Adoption revolutions / 195 SEVEn / The Difference Difference Makes / 229 EIGHT / Damaged Children, Therapeutic lives / 253 EPIlOGUE / reckoning with risk / 285 Notes / 301 Index / 373 ACKnOwlEDGMEnTS I am not certain about many things, but I am certain I would not have been able to write a single coherent sentence without the many peole who offered moral support, material assistance, and the gifts of friendship and simple curiosity along the way. My first debt is to the talented scholars who began making adoption history visible at the very moment I stumbled on the topic. Bernadine Barr, laura Briggs, wayne Carp, Joan Hollinger, randy Kennedy, Barbara Melosh, Margaret rhodes, and nikki Strong-Boag have been unfailingly encouraging teachers and supportive colleagues. For generously agreeing to read drafts, sometimes more than once, I wish to thank Bernadine Barr, Betty Bayer, laura Briggs, John Carson, Fran Cherry, Joan Hollinger, Jeff Ostler, and Mar- garet rhodes. wayne Carp, robert D. Johnston, and Barbara Melosh read this book in manuscript for the University of Chicago Press. Their incisive questions renewed my determination to aim high at a point when my en- ergy was low. That I could not follow through on all of their challenging suggestions suggests my own limitations rather than theirs. like those adoptees who struggle to recover documentary evidence of their life stories, we historians cannot pursue our craft without dedicated record keepers who guard traces of the past. Archivists Dave Klaassen at the University of Minnesota’s Social welfare History Archives, Steve novak at Columbia Medical School’s Archives and Special Collections, Jeff Flannery at the library of Congress, and Brother John Sheperd at Catholic Universi- ty’s Department of Archives and Manuscripts were especially helpful. At the national Archives, Jim Hastings came to my rescue at a crucial moment. Historians everywhere are indebted to interlibrary loan, and I am grateful to the staff at widener and Knight libraries.
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