| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 95.3

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 95.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Abandoned: Foundlings in Nineteenth-Century New York City. By Julie Miller. (New York: New York University Press, 2008. xiv, 319 pp. Cloth, $75.00, ISBN 978-0-8147-5725-3. Paper, $23.00, ISBN 978-0-8147-5726-0.)
Even though much recent work has been published on nineteenth-century orphanages in the United States, little is known about the history of foundlings—abandoned children, usually born out of wedlock, under two years of age. Julie Miller's deeply researched book on foundlings in nineteenth-century New York City fills a long-standing lacunae in the history of dependent children.	1
One of the many strengths of Abandoned is Miller's comparative methodology. Throughout, Miller compares and contrasts developments in the history of European foundling asylums with similar events in New York City. For example, before the Civil War, New Yorkers took little notice of foundlings' high mortality rate. Miller attributes the insensitivity of New Yorkers to their familiarity with European culture, either through direct experience before they emigrated or through books, plays, or art. Because of this knowledge, they assumed that the death of foundlings were part of the natural order of things and ignored their plight.	. . .

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