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Lädt ... American Baby: A Mother, a Child, and the Shadow History of Adoption (2021. Auflage)von Gabrielle Glaser (Autor)
Werk-InformationenAmerican Baby: A Mother, a Child, and the Shadow History of Adoption von Gabrielle Glaser    Keine Keine aktuelle Diskussion zu diesem Buch.  Daumari | Dec 28, 2023 |    ) LizzK | Dec 8, 2023 | ) Katyefk | Mar 26, 2022 | ) GarryRagan | Feb 18, 2022 | Gabrielle Glaser - American Baby: A Mother, a Child, and the Shadow History of Adoption: Interwoven individual story with American history, and while more intriguing than I would have thought (full of horrifying stats too, as you might imagine), it’s ultimately too heavy on the individual story. #cursorybookreviews #cursoryreviews (  ) khage | Oct 3, 2021 | keine Rezensionen | Rezension hinzufügen
AuszeichnungenPrestigeträchtige Auswahlen
"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-- As Baby Boomers became teenagers 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, and after she gave birth, she wasn't even allowed her to hold her own son. 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. Claiming to be acting in the best interests of all, 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 young women into surrendering their children. Gabrielle Glaser dramatically demonstrates the power of the expectations and institutions that Margaret faced. Margaret went on to marry and raise a large family with David's father, but she never stopped longing for and worrying about her firstborn. She didn't know he spent the first years of his life living just a few blocks away from her; as he grew, he wondered about where he came from and why he was given up. Their tale--one they share with millions of Americans--is one of loss, love, and the search for identity. Adoption's closed records are being legally challenged in states nationwide. Open adoption is the rule today, but the identities of many who were adopted or who surrendered a child in the postwar decades are locked in sealed files. American Baby illuminates a dark time in our history and shows a path to reunion that can help heal the wounds inflicted by years of shame and secrecy"-- Keine Bibliotheksbeschreibungen gefunden. |
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 Google Books — Lädt ...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)362.734Social sciences Social problems and services; associations Social problems of & services to groups of people Child welfare AdoptionKlassifikation der Library of Congress [LCC] (USA)BewertungDurchschnitt: (4.37)
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In the post-WWII boom, the United States commodified so many things, including babies. Adoption was (and now, to some people) portrayed as a "win-win-win"- a better life for baby, a child for a couple that wants one, and an elimination of the birth mother's 'shame'. In the overwhelming majority of these cases, however, birth mothers were coerced into giving up their infants. Adoption agencies lied to both the birth parents and adoptive parents about each other in effort to obtain babies and adopt them out. In the case of Margaret Erle, she never wanted to relinquish David and fought her parents and the Louise Wise agency every step she could.
The concept of closed adoptions infuriates me. It deprives parties of information they need because... why, societal comfort? When I read and reviewed The Girls Who Went Away, I was actually days past my abortion a decade ago, and the feelings were still fresh. When I wrote "shamed into silence", there was probably some irony because my ex didn't want our mutual acquaintances to find out about what happened, and would have favored a closed adoption if he could make the choice. Rewritten this last paragraph a couple times, but suffice to say that the pressure and coercion attempts (implications that I'd be an unfit mother at the time, that adoption would provide 'a better life', etc.) haven't gone away with the era of maternity homes. Sealed records maintains the cruelty that was inflicted years ago. I'd encourage anyone who thinks adoption is the end all be all for unwanted pregnancies to read the accounts of birth mothers and adoptees, to put actual voices to hypothetical concepts. (