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Imagined Orphans: Poor Families, Child Welfare, And Contested Citizenship in London
With his dirty, tattered clothes and hollowed-out face, Oliver Twist is the enduring symbol of the young indigent spilling out of orphanages and haunting the streets of late-nineteenth-century London. Although poor children were often portrayed as real-life Oliver Twists—either orphaned or abandoned by unworthy parents—they in fact frequently maintained contact and were eventually reunited with their families.
In Imagined Orphans , Lydia Murdoch focuses on this discrepancy between the representation and the reality of children’s experiences within welfare institutions—a discrepancy that she argues stems from conflicts over middle- and working-class notions of citizenship that arose in the 1870s and persisted until the First World War. Reformers’ efforts to depict poor children as either orphaned or endangered by abusive or “no-good” parents fed upon the poor’s increasing exclusion from the Victorian social body. Reformers used the public’s growing distrust and pitiless attitude toward poor adults to increase charity and state aid to the children.
With a critical eye to social issues of the period, Murdoch urges readers to reconsider the complex situations of families living in poverty. While reformers’ motivations seem well intentioned, she shows how their methods solidified the public’s antipoor sentiment and justified a minimalist welfare state that engendered a cycle of poverty. As they worked to fashion model citizens, reformers’ efforts to protect and care for children took on an increasingly imperial cast that would continue into the twentieth century.
In Imagined Orphans , Lydia Murdoch focuses on this discrepancy between the representation and the reality of children’s experiences within welfare institutions—a discrepancy that she argues stems from conflicts over middle- and working-class notions of citizenship that arose in the 1870s and persisted until the First World War. Reformers’ efforts to depict poor children as either orphaned or endangered by abusive or “no-good” parents fed upon the poor’s increasing exclusion from the Victorian social body. Reformers used the public’s growing distrust and pitiless attitude toward poor adults to increase charity and state aid to the children.
With a critical eye to social issues of the period, Murdoch urges readers to reconsider the complex situations of families living in poverty. While reformers’ motivations seem well intentioned, she shows how their methods solidified the public’s antipoor sentiment and justified a minimalist welfare state that engendered a cycle of poverty. As they worked to fashion model citizens, reformers’ efforts to protect and care for children took on an increasingly imperial cast that would continue into the twentieth century.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 2006
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July 15, 2015
Another very important and relevant book which helps us in understanding the whole British Home Children immigration movement. . Between 1863 and 1949 over 100,000 children were brought from England to Canada in migration programs which, initially, were meant to provide impoverish children with a chance for a better life.
For those interesting in our BHC and for descendants, you can join our very active Facebook group with over 2,300 members now! Found at:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/Briti... it is the largest group for the BHC ever. Expert researchers and BHC Historians are on hand to help with discovering your BHC story or to answer any questions you have about these migration programs.
For those interesting in our BHC and for descendants, you can join our very active Facebook group with over 2,300 members now! Found at:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/Briti... it is the largest group for the BHC ever. Expert researchers and BHC Historians are on hand to help with discovering your BHC story or to answer any questions you have about these migration programs.
Displaying 1 of 1 review