Bad Mothers The Politics of Blame in Twentieth-Century America

Name: Bad Mothers The Politics of Blame in Twentieth-Century America
Price: 31.58 USD
Availability: InStock
ISBN: 9780814751206

ISBN-10: 0814751202

ISBN-13: 9780814751206

Edition: 1998

Authors: Molly Ladd-Taylor, Lauri Umansky

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Description:

. . . a powerful volume of finely written essays.Journal of Social History In the past quarter century, "bad" mothers have moved noticeably toward center stage in American culture. While Susan Smith will eventually fade from the tabloids, the monster mother that she represents has a storied and long history. Mothers have been blamed for a host of problems, from autism in children (due to chilly "refrigerator" mothers), to homosexuality (attributed to "smothering" moms), to welfare dependency and crime (caused by black "matriarchs" and single mothers). Some mothers are not good mothers. No one can deny that. There are women who neglect their children, abuse them, and fail to provide them…

Book details

Copyright year: 1998
Publisher: New York University Press
Publication date: 1/1/1998
Binding: Paperback
Pages: 422
Size: 5.98" wide x 9.02" long x 0.59" tall
Weight: 1.254
Language: English

Lauri Umansky is Professor of History at Suffolk University and is the author of The New Disability History: American Perspectives and "Bad Mother: The Politics of Blame in the Twentieth Century America .



Introduction




Mending Rosa's "Working Ways": A Case Study of an African American Mother and Breadwinner




The Sterilization of Willie Mallory




Hospitalizing Maria Germani




Taking on a Mother's Job: Day Care in the 1920s and 1930s




"Mother Made Me Do It": Mother-Blaming and the Women of Child Guidance




Mother-Blaming




Antiracism and Maternal Failure in the 1940s and 1950s




"Momism" and the Making of Treasonous Homosexuals




Bad/Good, Good/Bad: Birth Mothers and Adoptive Mothers




Nonmothers as Bad Mothers: Infertility and the "Maternal Instinct"




On Being the "Bad" Mother of an Autistic Child




"Immoral Conduct": White Women, Racial Transgressions, and Custody Disputes




The Making of a "Bad" Mother: A Lesbian Mother and Her Daughters




Mothering to Death




On a Hickory Limb




The Overprotective Mother




How to Be a Jewish Mother: A Very Lovely Training Manual




Murder in Alabama: American Wives Think Viola Liuzzo Should Have Stayed Home




Mothers Who Don't Know How




"Fetal Rights": A New Assault on Feminism




Breastfeeding in the 1990s: The Karen Carter Case and the Politics of Maternal Sexuality




Rejecting Zoe Baird: Class Resentment and the Working Mother




Moms Don't Rock: The Popular Demonization of Courtney Love




Murdering Mothers




On Fixing "Bad" Mothers and Saving Their Children




Poisonous Choice



Contributors


Index