Martin untangles imagined orphanhood from its severe and persistent reality ... The history is sweeping, damning and infuriating ... Martin’s book contributes to a cultural understanding in which orphanhood is neither manufactured, nor idealized, nor divorced from its dark history. Yet, it still carries an optimism that would make Orphan Annie proud — the hope that we might move beyond the fictional tropes and toward an accountability to American families that we have not yet achieved.
Martin routinely applies a modern progressive outlook to an earlier era ... Underlying Ms. Martin’s discontent is her belief that the abuse of vulnerable children—then and now—is almost entirely attributable to poverty ... It’s not surprising that, for Ms. Martin, the best way to help vulnerable children is to abolish the 'racist,' 'classist' child-welfare system and engage in 'societal reform,' including universal basic income and guaranteed housing and child care. And in the meantime? Are we to leave children in abusive and neglectful situations while we remake society?
Fascinating ... A deeply researched, comprehensive rebuke to sentimental depictions of orphans as plucky adventurers, exposing the shameful reality of this country’s treatment of its most vulnerable citizens throughout its history and up to this very moment.
