“[Rymph] does an especially notable job of incorporating individual examples from archives, records, and letters to the Children’s Bureau. . . and heads of other children’s organizations to illustrate the central themes of the book, particularly those related to historical notions and intersections of race, class, and gender.”—Journal of Children and Poverty
“Rymph’s deeply researched, clearly written work is mandatory reading for both professional social workers and scholars of the modern welfare state.”—CHOICE
“Rymph’s book, supplemented by studies on the black tradition of self-help and child caring, provides a first step in understanding potential ways to serve families and their children in better ways.”—Stacey Patton, Women’s Review of Books
“Given her deep knowledge of the foster care system and her thoughtful engagement with the topic, one wishes that Rymph might take on the project of uncovering children’s experiences next. In the meantime, she has furnished us with an insightful, first-rate study of the history of foster care as a welfare program.”—H-Net Reviews
“A well-written, impressively researched book, marked by Rymph’s determination to inject the rarely archived viewpoints of foster parents and children into the narrative.”—The Journal of Southern History
“Rymph’s major contribution is putting these foster parents and their labor at the center of her story. She also provides an important gender analysis of the roles of both foster mothers and fathers.”—Journal of American History
“A valuable addition to the canon on American child welfare in the long twentieth century.”—American Historical Review
“Rymph has crafted a noteworthy study that is more than a history of foster care. She is particularly skilled at explaining how public policy intersects with gender, class, and race, which will make her book especially useful for teaching both undergraduate and graduate students how to engage in this type of analysis.”—Journal of Social History
“Richly and critically details the prejudiced assumptions guiding the architects and key administrators of the U.S. foster care system during this 40-year time span. The author boldly exposes how unscientific, sexist, and racist viewpoints systemically produced dissatisfying child welfare outcomes.”—Affilia: Journal of Women and Social Work
“Full of powerful vignettes of actual people and their various paths to foster care, this is policy history with an all too human face. Refreshingly, Rymph refuses to be judgmental when it comes to those who give up children and those who take them in, which is a welcome approach to a topic too often presented through lenses of morality.” —Eileen Boris, University of California, Santa Barbara
