The Traffic in Babies: Cross-Border Adoption and Baby-Selling Between the United States and Canada, 1930-1972 Contributor(s): Balcom, Karen (Author) |
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ISBN: 0802096131 ISBN-13: 9780802096135 Publisher: University of Toronto Press OUR PRICE: $45.90 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: August 2011 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - History | North American - Family & Relationships | Adoption & Fostering - Social Science | Sociology - General |
Dewey: 362.734 |
LCCN: 2012361158 |
Series: Studies in Gender and History |
Physical Information: 0.92" H x 6.61" W x 8.99" (1.25 lbs) 448 pages |
Themes: - Topical - Adoption - Topical - Family |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: Between 1930 and the mid-1970s, several thousand Canadian-born children were adopted by families in the United States. At times, adopting across the border was a strategy used to deliberately avoid professional oversight and take advantage of varying levels of regulation across states and provinces. The Traffic in Babies traces the efforts of Canadian and American child welfare leaders--with intermittent support from immigration officials, politicians, police, and criminal prosecutors--to build bridges between disconnected jurisdictions and control the flow of babies across the Canada-U.S. border. Karen A. Balcom details the dramatic and sometimes tragic history of cross-border adoptions--from the Ideal Maternity Home case and the Alberta Babies-for-Export scandal to trans-racial adoptions of Aboriginal children. Exploring how and why babies were moved across borders, The Traffic in Babies is a fascinating look at how social workers and other policy makers tried to find the birth mothers, adopted children, and adoptive parents who disappeared into the spaces between child welfare and immigration laws in Canada and the United States. |
Contributor Bio(s): Balcom, Karen: - Karen A. Balcom is an associate professor in the Department of History at McMaster University. |