Has the global push for adoption exploited mothers worldwide? Adoption History 101 summarizes the inception and expansion of the adoption industry, focusing on its roots and consequences kept from public awareness. For years, adoption agencies have denied adult adoptees access to documents that could lead them back to their families. In defense of the rights of adopted people, a true Ethiopian orphan briefly speaks her mind about adoption. Then, going back in time, the attention shifts from African adoptions (what's trending now), to the 1954 Evangelical Baby "Swoop" Era, to the 1854 Orphan Train Movement, and finally to the European Child Migration Schemes. This research supports those who have ever felt isolated due to the industry's privacy and lack of transparency.Taken children--now adults--are critiquing a global man-made market. This "orphan's" perspective is meant to inform vulnerable communities against a fierce industry that professes God is on their side. It is only natural for Mother-Nature to recover itself.This research is motivated by a Haitian adoptee who died of heart failure in his early thirties after learning that he had been trafficked to France for international adoption but was never able to acquire justice due to the public's love affair with the practice. This short book definitely does not cover the entire global adoption practice, but it does give more information than what has been publically accessible in the past. It also deconstructs the industry and acknowledges the families left behind--something never done before by the lobbyists. International and domestic adoptees from all over the world have banned together for "truth and transparency." This is the first history book to discuss the crisis of adoption trafficking "by the people, of the people, and for the people."

Need to protect vulnerable families from the crisis of adoption trafficking? This investigational look is crucial.Has the global push for adoption exploited mothers worldwide? Adoption History 101 summarizes the inception and expansion of the adoption industry, focusing on its roots and consequences kept from public awareness. For years, facilitators have denied adoptees access to documents that could lead them back to their families. In defense of the rights of adopted people, a true Ethiopian orphan briefly speaks her mind about adoption. Then, going back in time, the attention shifts from African adoptions (what's been trending) to the 1954 Evangelical Baby "Swoop" Era, to the 1854 Orphan Train Movement, and finally to the European Child Migration Schemes. This research supports those who have ever felt isolated due to the industry's privacy and lack of transparency. Taken children-now adults-are critiquing a global human-made market. This orphan's perspective is meant to inform vulnerable communities against a fierce industry that professes God is on their side. It is only natural for Mother-Nature to recover itself. This research is motivated by a Haitian adoptee who died of heart failure after learning that he had been trafficked to France for overseas adoption but was never able to acquire justice due to the public's love affair with the practice. This short book deconstructs the industry and acknowledges the families left behind. The first history book to point out the crisis of adoption trafficking.

"Includes research on adoption documents rarely open to historians . . . an important addition to the literature on adoption." ---Choice "Sheds new light on the roots of this complex and fascinating institution." ---Library Journal "Well-written and accessible . . . showcases the wide-ranging scholarship underway on the history of adoption." ---Adoptive Families "[T]his volume is a significant contribution to the literature and can serve as a catalyst for further research." ---Social Service Review Adoption affects an estimated 60 percent of Americans, but despite its pervasiveness, this social institution has been little examined and poorly understood. Adoption in America gathers essays on the history of adoptions and orphanages in the United States. Offering provocative interpretations of a variety of issues, including antebellum adoption and orphanages; changing conceptions of adoption in late-nineteenth-century novels; Progressive Era reform and adoptive mothers; the politics of "matching" adoptive parents with children; the radical effect of World War II on adoption practices; religion and the reform of adoption; and the construction of birth mother and adoptee identities, the essays in Adoption in America will be debated for many years to come.

This book covers adoption today, yesterday, and around the world, giving voice to those who experienced the orphan ships, planes, trains, and even adoption trafficking, ultimately unveiling the industry's tricks of the trade. "Imagine, you're about to have a little one. The love that you have for that little one. Then imagine somebody outside of your family you don't even know, making claims of your little one. They don't like the way you live. They're going to take your little one by force. Imagine what the loss is. When this is not just your family but your entire community--this is its children." Gkisedtanamoogk, University of Maine From The "First Light" Upstander Project

A New York Times Notable Book The shocking truth about postwar adoption in America, told through the bittersweet story of one teenager, the son she was forced to relinquish, and their search to find each other. “[T]his book about the past might foreshadow a coming shift in the future… ‘I don’t think any legislators in those states who are anti-abortion are actually thinking, “Oh, great, these single women are gonna raise more children.” No, their hope is that those children will be placed for adoption. But is that the reality? I doubt it.’”[says Glaser]” -Mother Jones During the Baby Boom in 1960s America, women were encouraged to stay home and raise large families, but sex and childbirth were taboo subjects. Premarital sex was common, but birth control was hard to get and abortion was illegal. In 1961, sixteen-year-old Margaret Erle fell in love and became pregnant. Her enraged family sent her to a maternity home, where social workers threatened her with jail until she signed away her parental rights. Her son vanished, his whereabouts and new identity known only to an adoption agency that would never share the slightest detail about his fate. The adoption business was founded on secrecy and lies. American Baby lays out how a lucrative and exploitative industry removed children from their birth mothers and placed them with hopeful families, fabricating stories about infants' origins and destinations, then closing the door firmly between the parties forever. Adoption agencies and other organizations that purported to help pregnant women struck unethical deals with doctors and researchers for pseudoscientific "assessments," and shamed millions of women into surrendering their children. The identities of many who were adopted or who surrendered a child in the postwar decades are still locked in sealed files. Gabrielle Glaser dramatically illustrates in Margaret and David’s tale--one they share with millions of Americans—a story of loss, love, and the search for identity.

Family Matters cuts through the sealed records, changing policies, and conflicting agendas that have obscured the history of adoption in America and reveals how the practice and attitudes about it have evolved from colonial days to the present.

Collects quick snapshots of historic and political events from American history from the Battles of Bunkerhill and Yorktown to the great recession.