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Since the early 1990s, transnational adoptions have increased at an astonishing rate, not only in the United States, but worldwide. In Belonging in an Adopted World, Barbara Yngvesson offers a penetrating exploration of the consequences and implications of this unprecedented movement of children, usually from poor nations to the affluent West. Yngvesson illuminates how the politics of adoption policy has profoundly affected the families, nations, and children involved in this new form of social and economic migration.

Starting from the transformation of the abandoned child into an adoptable resource for nations that give and receive children in adoption, this volume examines the ramifications of such gifts, especially for families created through adoption and later, the adopted adults themselves. Bolstered by an account of the author’s own experience as an adoptive parent, and fully attuned to the contradictions of race that shape our complex forms of family, Belonging in an Adopted World explores the fictions that sustain adoptive kinship, ultimately exposing the vulnerability and contingency behind all human identity.

In the wake of vast social and economic changes, the nuclear family has lost its dominance, both as an ideal and in practice. Some welcome this shift, while others see civilization itself in peril—but few move beyond ideology to develop a nuanced understanding of how families function in society. In this provocative book, Margaret F. Brinig draws on research from a variety of disciplines to offer a distinctive study of family dynamics and social policy.

Concentrating on legal reform, Brinig examines a range of subjects, including cohabitation, custody, grandparent visitation, and domestic violence. She concludes that conventional legal reforms and the social programs they engender ignore social capital: the trust and support given to families by a community. Traditional families generate much more social capital than nontraditional ones, Brinig concludes, which leads to clear rewards for the children. Firmly grounded in empirical research, Family, Law, and Community argues that family policy can only be effective if it is guided by an understanding of the importance of social capital and the advantages held by families that accrue it.

The rise in divorce, cohabitation, single parenthood, and same-sex partnerships, along with an increase in surrogacy, adoption, and assisted reproductive technologies, has led to many diverse configurations of families, or intimate associations. J. Herbie DiFonzo and Ruth C. Stern chart these trends over the past several decades and investigate their social, legal, and economic implications.

Drawing upon a wealth of social science data, they show that, by a number of measures, children of married parents fare better than children in a household formed by cohabiting adults. This is not to condemn nontraditional families, but to point out that society and the law do not yet adequately provide for their needs. The authors applaud the ways in which courts and legislatures are beginning to replace rigid concepts of marriage and parenthood with the more flexible concept of “functional” family roles. In the conclusion, they call for a legal system that can adapt to the continually changing reality of family life.

A groundbreaking exploration of the Jewish marriage contract and its evolution in English translation

Translating the Ketubah offers a fresh perspective on the ketubah, the Jewish marriage contract. Traditionally composed in Aramaic, ketubot have been examined in other books within the frameworks of Jewish law and Jewish art. Here, however, Benjamin Steiner shows how translations of the ketubah into English helped Jews adapt to changing social and economic circumstances across more than two centuries.

Steiner uses ketubot to trace the intricate relationship between religious law and secular law, the changing status of women within and outside Judaism, and the complex desire of Jews to be both authentically Jewish and fully acculturated. Steiner further shows how ketubah translation aided Jews to achieve different cultural goals. It has been used to uphold rabbinic law in communities where religious affiliation was voluntary to ensure women's economic security. It has also facilitated socialization with non-Jews and addressed perceived crises within the Jewish family.

Through a nuanced analysis of ketubah translations from England and various regions of the United States from the late eighteenth century to the present, Steiner offers a detailed look at how Jews have adapted ancient tradition to meet the challenges and opportunities of different historical contexts. His work sheds new light on the rich history of American and British Jewry.