false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171724182m/116477.jpg 116477 5 A powerful and groundbreaking revelation of the secret history of the 1.5 million women who surrendered children for adoption in the several decades before <i>Roe v. Wade</i> <br><br> In this deeply moving work, Ann Fessler brings to light the lives of hundreds of thousands of young single American women forced to give up their newborn children in the years following World War II and before <i>Roe v. Wade</i>. <i>The Girls Who Went Away</i> tells a story not of wild and carefree sexual liberation, but rather of a devastating double standard that has had punishing long-term effects on these women and on the children they gave up for adoption. Based on Fessler's groundbreaking interviews, it brings to brilliant life these women's voices and the spirit of the time, allowing each to share her own experience in gripping and intimate detail. Today, when the future of the <i>Roe</i> decision and women's reproductive rights stand squarely at the front of a divisive national debate, Fessler brings to the fore a long-overlooked history of single women in the fifties, sixties, and early seventies. <br><br> In 2002, Fessler, an adoptee herself, traveled the country interviewing women willing to speak publicly about why they relinquished their children. Researching archival records and the political and social climate of the time, she uncovered a story of three decades of women who, under enormous social and family pressure, were coerced or outright forced to give their babies up for adoption. Fessler deftly describes the impossible position in which these women found themselves: as a sexual revolution heated up in the postwar years, birth control was tightly restricted, and abortion proved prohibitively expensive or life endangering. At the same time, a postwar economic boom brought millions of American families into the middle class, exerting its own pressures to conform to a model of family perfection. Caught in the middle, single pregnant women were shunned by family and friends, evicted from schools, sent away to maternity homes to have their children alone, and often treated with cold contempt by doctors, nurses, and clergy. <br><br> The majority of the women Fessler interviewed have never spoken of their experiences, and most have been haunted by grief and shame their entire adult lives. A searing and important look into a long-overlooked social history, <i>The Girls Who Went Away</i> is their story. 112165 4 5 2006 The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade total:702|5:267|4:292|3:124|2:17|1:2| 702 2911 1359 225 5 4 false false Thu Oct 09 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Sep 24 11:36:40 -0700 2008 Thu Oct 09 07:43:11 -0700 2008
For too long we as a culture have believed that the children in the adoption system have been thrown away by uncaring mothers. The truth is that many of these...more...]]> 3 2 false false Wed Jul 11 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat May 24 16:58:59 -0700 2008 Sat May 24 16:59:46 -0700 2008 The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades before Roe v. Wade, she also talked to some of the women featured in the book. I was listening to the sh...more...]]> 3 2 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Oct 10 20:20:18 -0700 2007 Sun Oct 14 00:53:54 -0700 2007 5 2 false false Sun Feb 03 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Dec 13 04:49:23 -0800 2008 Sat Dec 13 04:49:51 -0800 2008 1 more...]]> 3 1 false false Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Sep 03 07:55:02 -0700 2008 Wed Sep 03 08:03:47 -0700 2008
It was a...more...]]> 4 1 false false Fri May 09 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Mar 21 09:18:59 -0700 2008 Fri May 09 13:30:21 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 1 true false Sun Feb 17 09:09:15 -0800 2008 Fri May 16 18:39:25 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Sat Jan 05 21:14:16 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 16 11:38:30 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Tue Mar 24 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 10 12:55:20 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 24 10:00:03 -0700 2009 5 1 false false Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Oct 06 15:35:18 -0700 2008 Mon Oct 06 15:42:39 -0700 2008 1 more...]]> 5 1 false false Sat Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Fri Jul 06 19:47:54 -0700 2007 Thu Jul 19 08:18:46 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 08 12:30:42 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 20 11:56:29 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Feb 12 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 11 14:23:20 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 13 10:05:19 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Oct 27 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 12 18:44:34 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 29 13:58:46 -0700 2009 more...]]> 0 0 false false Thu Feb 05 09:39:55 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 05 09:39:55 -0800 2009 Perhaps it's no surprise that this story has gone untold for so long, considering the personal nature of the subject and the moral dilemma heaped upon the young women who gave their babies up for adoption. What is astonishing is that Fessler, a photographer and video installation artist writing her...

more...]]> 5 1 false false Thu May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Nov 21 06:41:24 -0800 2007 Mon May 12 15:12:38 -0700 2008 ]]> 5 0 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Nov 18 17:22:27 -0800 2009 Wed Nov 18 17:26:06 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Mar 20 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Feb 28 18:50:26 -0800 2009 Wed Apr 01 19:09:45 -0700 2009
This book is an oral history of the unmarried women who gave up children for adoption in the years before Roe vs. Wade. You may have heard stories of women who 'went away' to care for a sick relative or some other excuse. Really they were s...more...]]> 5 1 false false Tue Aug 26 15:04:58 -0700 2008 Tue Aug 26 15:05:50 -0700 2008 5 0 false false Wed Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 13 08:36:26 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 25 21:48:10 -0700 2009 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=116477