"A powerful blend of history, biography, and adventure, Orphan Trains fills a gap in the American narrative. This book tells of a little-known but enormously influential child welfare effort: the orphan trains, which between 1854 and 1929 spirited away some 250,000 abandoned children to the homes of families in the Midwest and West. Combining the accounts of orphans - including those of surviving orphans who took the last train out - and the biography of an indefatigable crusader for children, Stephen O'Connor at last does this history justice."--Jacket.
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