American Baby : : a Mother, a Child, and the Shadow History of Adoption

Locations
Call Number: 362.734 Gl, Adult Book / Nonfiction / Family & Relationships / General / Glaser, Gabrielle
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	362.734 Gl	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Traverwood Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Family & Relationships / General / Glaser, Gabrielle	4-week checkout	Due 04-26-2024

"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"-- Provided by publisher.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Good info, but too much detail on the personal history submitted by Susan4Pax -prev. sueij- on June 12, 2022, 12:08pm Meh. I neither liked nor disliked this book. On the plus side, Glaser is definitely a good writer and researcher. I loved the information she found and included about the history of adoption in the US, and appreciate the nuance she brought to it around economics, race, and class. On the it-didn’t-work-for-me side, the personal stories in _American Baby_ were just waaaaaay too detailed for my interest. It felt to me like Glaser was writing a book for the family, and felt obliged to include every detail that anyone expressed in an interview so that it would be captured for all eternity, whether or not the rest of us needed it.

I will say that this book pairs perfectly with Sarah Dingle’s _Brave New Humans_, which picks up right where _American Baby_ leaves off, taking the story from adoption to donor conception, while continuing the focus on the rights of the child. Between the two, I have a lot to think about regarding children who are not 100% naturally conceived, carried, and raised by birth parents. (To be clear, that doesn’t mean I think other forms of parenting shouldn’t happen, only that there are complications I never considered until I read these books.)

Hard to put down submitted by Zekicmom on August 7, 2023, 9:17am This book was enthralling and heartbreaking. It tells the story of adoption in the United States, mostly in mid 1900s. Focused on one family, from both the side of the birth mother and the son who was forcibly put up for adoption, the author shows the ugly workings of a system that claimed to help people. I knew little about the topic before my read, and now I am feeling so many different emotions, including anger and sadness about what these people went through. Incredibly well researched and sensitively told.