This comprehensive history traces the care of dependent, delinquent,         and disabled children in Illinois from the early nineteenth century to         current times, focusing on the dilemmas raised by both public intervention         and the lack of it. Joan Gittens explores the inadequacies of a system         that has allowed problems in the public care of children to recur regularly         but at the same time insists that the state's own history makes it clear         that the potential for improvements exists.