University of British Columbia Press
Lost Kids
Vulnerable Children and Youth in Twentieth-Century Canada and the United States
Distributed for University of British Columbia Press
Lost Kids
Vulnerable Children and Youth in Twentieth-Century Canada and the United States
Children and youth occupy important social and political roles, even as they sleep in cribs or hang out on street corners. Conceptualized as either harbingers or saboteurs of a bright, secure tomorrow, they have motivated many adult-driven schemes to effect a positive future. But have all children benefited from these programs and initiatives? Lost Kids examines adults’ misgivings about, and the inadequate care of, vulnerable children. From explorations of interracial adoption and the treatment of children with disabilities to discussions of the cultural construction of the hopeless child, this multifaceted collection rejects the essentialism of the “priceless child” or “lost youth” – simplistic categories that continue to shape the treatment of those who deviate from the so-called norm.
Table of Contents
Introduction / Mona Gleason, Tamara Myers, Leslie Paris, and Veronica Strong-Boag
Part 1: Wanted Kids? Institutions, Fostering, and Adoption
1 A Haven From Racism? Canadians Imagine Interracial Adoption / Karen Dubinsky
2 “Forgotten People of All the Forgotten”: Children with Disabilities in English Canada from the Nineteenth Century to the New Millennium / Veronica Strong-Boag
Part 2: The Trouble with Adolescents -- Law, Experts, and Institutions Target Youth
3 Lost in Modernity: "Maladjustment" and the "Modern Youth Problem," English Canada, 1920-50 / Cynthia Comacchio
4 James Dean and Jim Crow: Boys in the Texas Juvenile Justice System in the 1950s / William Bush
5 Nocturnal Disorder and the Curfew Solution: A History of Juvenile Sundown Regulations in Canada / Tamara Myers
Part 3: In Aid of Small Bodies -- Health, Hospitals, and Age in Historical Perspective
6 Learning and Leisure on the Inside: Programs for Sick Children at Sainte-Justine Hospital, 1925-70 / Denyse Baillargeon
7 “Lost Voices, Lost Bodies”? Doctors and the Embodiment of Children and Youth in English Canada from 1900 to the 1940s / Mona Gleason
Part 4: Colliding Visions -- The Politics of Families and Youth
8 What Child Left Behind? US Social Policy and the Hopeless Child / Molly Ladd-Taylor
9 “The Strange Way We Lived”: Divorce and American Childhood in the 1970s / Leslie Paris
10 Losing the Child in Child-Centred Legal Processes / Cindy L. Baldassi, Susan B. Boyd, and Fiona Kelly
Part 5: Access and Opportunity at the Beginning of theTwenty-First Century -- Equality Delayed
11 Play Is Not a Frill: Poor Youth Facing the Past, Present, and Future of Public Recreation in Canada / Wendy Fris