Poor Relations

       This comprehensive history traces the care of dependent, delinquent,

        and disabled children in Illinois from the early nineteenth century to

        current times, focusing on the dilemmas raised by both public intervention

        and the lack of it. Joan Gittens explores the inadequacies of a system

        that has allowed problems in the public care of children to recur regularly

        but at the same time insists that the state's own history makes it clear

        that the potential for improvements exists.