The Orphan Trains

This title exam­ines an impor­tant his­toric event — the orphan train move­ment. Easy-to-read, com­pelling text explores the his­to­ry of the Chil­dren’s Aid Soci­ety and the devel­op­ment of the Brace School, lodg­ing hous­es, and indus­tri­al schools, the con­di­tions that led to child aban­don­ment in the 1800s, prob­lems with insti­tu­tion­al care and child labor laws, the roles the Civ­il War, the Great Depres­sion, and peo­ple like Charles Lor­ing Brace played, and the effects of this event on soci­ety. Fea­tures include a table of con­tents, glos­sary, select­ed bib­li­og­ra­phy, Web links, source notes, and an index, plus a time­line and essen­tial facts. 

These titles offer con­cise, insight­ful analy­sis of events that have left a mark on past and recent Amer­i­can his­to­ry … Each vol­ume pro­vides read­ers with the nec­es­sary his­tor­i­cal con­text, the per­ti­nent details of the events them­selves, and the short-term effects and last­ing lega­cies of each one … With­in the frame­work of the nar­ra­tives, judi­cious side­bars, and pho­tographs and oth­er images, read­ers are intro­duced to what should be stan­dard research top­ics. Each book con­cludes with a handy time line; bul­let­ed facts; a glos­sary; and a brief bib­li­og­ra­phy of sec­ondary sources, web links, and places to vis­it. Over­all, these titles are excel­lent intro­duc­tions to these impor­tant top­ics, par­tic­u­lar­ly for devel­op­ing an ana­lyt­i­cal frame­work for debate