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senquezada29's review against another edition
5.0
This was an absolutely fascinating and disgustingly racist piece of AZ history that won't ever be taught in schools. It's the story of a group of poor Mexican mineworkers in Globe/Miami, AZ who tried to do a good deed by opening their homes to care for orphaned Irish children from the Northeastern United States. Of course, the reaction of the town's white folks, which was to turn to mob violence and use the legal system to prevent what they saw as the horrific tragedy of colored people raising and loving white children as their own.
rob503's review against another edition
4.0
Linda Gordon uses the story of the abduction of forty white orphans originally promised to Mexican Catholic families in the border communities of Southeastern Arizona to explore issues of race, gender, and vigilantism. This story of children that became the rope in a tug of war between races and religions culminates in a Supreme Court decision that ruled the adoption to be “child abuse.” Her book also demonstrates how racially motivated many institutions in the United States were, and still, are.
Her primary argument is that women have played a significant role in constructing and defending race lines, but mostly remain in the background of these stories. Gordon details how white orphans being given to non-white families infuriated the Protestant white “Anglo” women of the town who invigorated their husbands to abduct the children at gunpoint. Gordon laments that the role of the family is often underrepresented when exploring issues of race. Whereas the Mexican Catholic women in the story were motivated to expand their families and perhaps blur the national and racial lines evident in their communities, so too were the Anglo protestant women. The Anglo women, unfortunately, were motivated by familial expansion and their belief that they were the best option for raising the orphaned, white, children. Maternalism drove the racial divide in this community rather than healing it through a shared sense of humanity that could have been found in the children’s arrival.
Throughout the book, the author demonstrates the path the region took to become such a racially mixed area, and how those political and racial attitudes made it a powder keg. Her chapter on the history of vigilantism in the United States was particularly enlightening and demonstrated the role it played in shaping race and gender throughout American history. In the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision, it is easy to follow how white Anglo-Saxon protestants have maintained supremacy in the United States, and how myth and memory contribute to a continued racial divide in that part of the country.
Inserting a novel-like retelling of the narrative around her historical scholarship makes the book very readable. Her ability to recreate the world around the events through her prose is worthy of emulation. She does not embellish beyond the evidence she finds, despite a lack of documentation about motive during the abduction crisis, as motive and motivations are never explicitly clear in official documents. She connects institutional and church records to memories of town residents and other works on racial relations in the greater Southwest border region to paint a picture of life in 1904, and the ramifications of this orphan crisis.
Her epilogue is particularly important, insofar as she describes how memories are crafted. Significant events like the labor strike of 1983 and powerful entities like the mining company in Morenci sometimes conspire to craft a narrative that suits the needs of those in power. Gordon engages with a growing subfield on women's involvement in shaping child welfare policy in the Progressive Era.
Her primary argument is that women have played a significant role in constructing and defending race lines, but mostly remain in the background of these stories. Gordon details how white orphans being given to non-white families infuriated the Protestant white “Anglo” women of the town who invigorated their husbands to abduct the children at gunpoint. Gordon laments that the role of the family is often underrepresented when exploring issues of race. Whereas the Mexican Catholic women in the story were motivated to expand their families and perhaps blur the national and racial lines evident in their communities, so too were the Anglo protestant women. The Anglo women, unfortunately, were motivated by familial expansion and their belief that they were the best option for raising the orphaned, white, children. Maternalism drove the racial divide in this community rather than healing it through a shared sense of humanity that could have been found in the children’s arrival.
Throughout the book, the author demonstrates the path the region took to become such a racially mixed area, and how those political and racial attitudes made it a powder keg. Her chapter on the history of vigilantism in the United States was particularly enlightening and demonstrated the role it played in shaping race and gender throughout American history. In the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision, it is easy to follow how white Anglo-Saxon protestants have maintained supremacy in the United States, and how myth and memory contribute to a continued racial divide in that part of the country.
Inserting a novel-like retelling of the narrative around her historical scholarship makes the book very readable. Her ability to recreate the world around the events through her prose is worthy of emulation. She does not embellish beyond the evidence she finds, despite a lack of documentation about motive during the abduction crisis, as motive and motivations are never explicitly clear in official documents. She connects institutional and church records to memories of town residents and other works on racial relations in the greater Southwest border region to paint a picture of life in 1904, and the ramifications of this orphan crisis.
Her epilogue is particularly important, insofar as she describes how memories are crafted. Significant events like the labor strike of 1983 and powerful entities like the mining company in Morenci sometimes conspire to craft a narrative that suits the needs of those in power. Gordon engages with a growing subfield on women's involvement in shaping child welfare policy in the Progressive Era.
sjbshannon's review against another edition
5.0
A great book dealing with issues related to Catholicism and race, through the lens of the kidnapping by Anglo families of New York Irish-American orphans placed with Mexican families in Arizona.
katekatiekait's review against another edition
2.0
I finished this book because my grandmother loaned to to me. The historical facts upon which this book is based are fascinating, I just wished someone else had told the story. This book needed a good editor who bought red pens in bulk.
lukescalone's review against another edition
3.0
I understand the importance of this piece, but it is far too narratively driven and inventive to be of a ton of interest to me. I wish that Gordon came at the subject from a much more analytic angle than she actually does.
kathleenitpdx's review
4.0
This is a fascinating piece of history. In 1904 a young Catholic priest from France serving a parish in a copper mining camp in the mountains of Arizona helped the New York Foundling Hospital arrange for placements of Irish American orphans in his parish. His parish was almost exclusively Mexican. When the orphans arrived, the local Anglos decided that the white orphans should not be laced with Mexican families and kidnapped those who were already with their new families.
Gordon weaves the story of the orphans with details about copper mining, racism, vigilantism, orphanage management, company towns and many other illuminating pieces of information.
One thing I would change is putting the information about the 1903 strike that happened a little over a year before the orphans arrival earlier in the book. It was a pivotal incident that involved some of the same people. It would have made more sense to me t have had this information earlier in the book.
Gordon weaves the story of the orphans with details about copper mining, racism, vigilantism, orphanage management, company towns and many other illuminating pieces of information.
One thing I would change is putting the information about the 1903 strike that happened a little over a year before the orphans arrival earlier in the book. It was a pivotal incident that involved some of the same people. It would have made more sense to me t have had this information earlier in the book.
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