Babies without Borders: Adoption and Migration across the Americas

‘Dubinsky's research is excellent… Her contribution to this sub-field in the burgeoning field of childhood studies is a fine one and this book is a must read for all serious scholars of childhood and adoption.’ James Onusko, British Journal of Canadian Studies: vol 24:02:2011

‘This is a great book that historians of foreign relations, family, the United States, Canada, and Latin America, along with those interested in adoption, should read and assign… Dubinsky uses her own experience to help produce a rich and insightful history of people, policies, and nations in the Americas.’ Leslie Reagan, Histoire sociale /Social History; vol 45:89:2012

'By making children the subject of her research, Dubinsky has provided original insight into the moral premises by which power is exercised and experienced. To approach children as highly-prized objects within paradigms of transnational privilege-the continuation of politics by other means-is to expose in the most intimate of settings the ways that the powerful and the powerless are drawn together into an inexorable relationship with one another, with all too predictable outcomes. This is a thoughtful and thought-provoking work of exemplary scholarship.'

Louis A. Perez, Jr., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

'Deeply researched, beautifully written, and brimming with insight, Babies Without Borders illustrates how profoundly narratives about rescuing and stealing children have distorted our understanding of international adoption throughout its history. From Cuba and Canada to Guatemala, babies caught up in the wars, refugee migrations, and other global calamities of the past half-century have paid a very high price for the privilege of serving as symbols of national pride, vulnerability, and destiny. Dubinsky refreshingly shifts our attention from Asia to Latin America, insists on telling stories from both sides of the border, and offers compelling evidence for the view that international power is inextricably linked to some of the most intimate experiences of family life—including her own.' Ellen Herman, University of Oregon