"A Right to Childhood"
The U.S. Children's Bureau and Child Welfare, 1912-46
The work of a government agency tasked with protecting American children
Paper – $37
978-0-252-06577-4
Publication Date
Paperback: 04/01/1997
About the Book
The work of a government agency tasked with protecting American childrenPolitical factions in the United States use children as weapons to further their agendas. Americans, meanwhile, try to determine the role of the federal government in the lives of children.
Kriste Lindenmeyer provides a history of federal child welfare policy in the US by examining efforts by the US Children’s Bureau between 1903 and its dissolution in 1946. Looking at the Bureau’s goal to promote a right to childhood, Lindenmeyer’s analysis looks at infant and maternal mortality, the promotion of child health care, child labor reform, and the protection of special-needs children while discussing the legislation that affected the Bureau’s work.
In-depth and astute, "A Right to Childhood" reveals the Children’s Bureau’s forty-plus years of meaningful successes and unfortunate failures.
About the Author
Kriste Lindenmeyer is a professor in the Department of History at Rutgers–Camden University. She is the editor of Ordinary Women, Extraordinary Lives: Women in American History.Related Titles
