The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction
by Linda Gordon
 

Amazon.com Arizona Book Section

Arizona Books
 

Editorial Reviews 

The New York Times Book Review, Stephen Lassonde 
...[a] masterly assembly of historical detail and acute sensitivity to the intricacies of human relations as mediated by power, prejudice and the passage of time. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition. 

From Kirkus Reviews 
Microhistory at its best. Gordon (History/Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison) has long been a student of working-class and poor women, with a special interest in motherhood (Pitied But Not Entitled, 1994, traces the history of single mothers and welfare). Here she takes on some new challengesnarrative, the history of Spanish-speaking Americans, New Western history. Gordon began with great raw material: a gripping tale that sounds more like the plot of a TV mini-series than the subject of a university press book. In 1904, Catholic nuns in New York sent 40 Irish children on an orphan train to a small Arizona mining town, where they would be cared for by Catholic familiesMexican Catholic families. When the children arrived, the Anglo townsfolk were outraged by the idea that 40 white boys and girls were going to be placed with non-white families. Anglo women organized their men into a posse which kidnapped the children from the Mexican families. A trial followed, and the Arizona Territorial Supreme Court found in favor of the Anglos. Gordon, drawing on interviews, newspapers, and the court transcript, recreates the kidnapping and the ensuing courtroom drama in intoxicating detail. Along the way, Gordon cracks open a number of hot issues, from labor relations to womens roles. At the center is her examination of the social construction of race; you wont find a more illuminating or nuanced discussion of the invention of whiteness than Gordons. The train ride, Gordon reminds us, had transformed [the foundlings] from Irish to white. In early twentieth-century New York, Irish kids were no more white than Jewish or Italian children. But in Arizona, where the other was dark-skinned and spoke a language even more foreign to white ears than an Irish brogue, the children were suddenly as white as George Washington. Gordon has written the rare history book that readers wont be able to put down. (35 halftones, 2 maps, 1 table) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition. 

Book Description 
In 1904, New York nuns brought forty Irish orphans to a remote Arizona mining camp, to be placed with Catholic families. The Catholic families were Mexican, as was the majority of the population. Soon the town's Anglo-Americans, furious at this "interracial" transgression, formed a vigilante squad that kidnapped the children and nearly lynched the nuns and the local priest. The Catholic Church sued to get its wards back, but all the courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, ruled in favor of the vigilantes. The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction tells this disturbing and dramatic tale to illuminate the creation of racial boundaries along the Mexican border. Clifton/Morenci, Arizona, was a "wild West" boomtown, where the mines and smelters pulled in thousands of Mexican immigrant workers. Racial walls hardened as the mines became big business and whiteness became a marker of superiority. These already volatile race and class relations produced passions that erupted in the "orphan incident." To the Anglos of Clifton/Morenci, placing a white child with a Mexican family was tantamount to child abuse, and they saw their kidnapping as a rescue. Women initiated both sides of this confrontation. Mexican women agreed to take in these orphans, both serving their church and asserting a maternal prerogative; Anglo women believed they had to "save" the orphans, and they organized a vigilante squad to do it. In retelling this nearly forgotten piece of American history, Linda Gordon brilliantly recreates and dissects the tangled intersection of family and racial values, in a gripping story that resonates with today's conflicts over the "best interests of the child." --This text refers to the Hardcover edition. 

Synopsis 
A disturbing real-life account of racism at the turn of the century follows forty Irish orphans brought to Arizona by Catholic nuns to be adopted by local Mexican-American families, their kidnapping by outraged Anglo vigilantes, and the subsequent Supreme Court case that found in favor of the abductors. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition. 
 
 
 
 

Amazon's Arizona Page
 

From About.com Classic Literature and Fiction Guide
 

Top Stores:

AMAZON.COM
Earth's Biggest Selection 
Review  Rating:9.4 go there now!
Read Articles and learn more about this site here
Amazon UK

The World's Largest Bookseller Online 
Rating: 9.0  go there now!

10 million books,  CD's and videos 
Rating: 9.0 go there now!

I took a course in speed reading. Then I got Reader's Digest on microfilm. By the time I got the machine set up, I was done.

I just got out of the hospital. I was in a speed reading accident. I hit a book mark and flew across the room.

All Stores:

Alibris.com
Search over 3 million used, out of print, rare and 
antiquarian books for sale from online web bookstore. Updated daily, constant inventory of  fine booksellers and ephemera.

BUY BOOKS.COM
The Internet Superstore 
Rating: 9.1 go there now!
 

VarsityBooks.com
The leading online college textbook store, offers over 400,000 titles at up to a 40% off bookstore prices.  Class textbook lists for 300 colleges 
and universities
Rating:9.0 go there now!

BigWords.com
Online college textbook store offering new and used college textbooks at discounted prices.  Buy your books online up to 40% cheaper than at your college bookstore.

Rating: 8.9  go there now!
For books-a-plenty visit this website featuring free book reviews, a Book du Jour (everyday, even!), Weekly Features, the Book Retriever (an easy-to-search database of titles), a section devoted to AudioBooks (with it’s own AudioBooks Retriever), Publisher’s Highlights and a Find & Fulfill service (just in case you can’t find the book you want, Books Now can!) With access to over 1 million titles, Books Now is sure to meet your needs!

AudioBookClub.com
Rating 8.8   go there now!
Tens of thousands of titles in dozens of categories 
so no matter what you're looking for, you're sure to find it at Audio Book Club. 4 Audiobooks For 1 Penny.

Rating : 8.5  go there now!
For a comprehensive selection of computer, programming and technical books, interactive training and certification - such as MCSE, Fatbrain.com should be your first stop.

Rating: 8.5  go there now!
"Publisher's overstocks at blow-out prices.  Millions of in-stock books covering all major categories including out-of-print material. Secure online ordering with customer satisfaction guarantee 

Seek Books.com
Rating: 8.5  go there now!
Discount Book Seller and Source for Hard-to-find Books, Audio Books, Videos and Other Book Related Items

Textbooks.com
Discounted new and used textbooks books. Guaranteed Buy Back.
Rating: 8.9  go there now!

Rating: 8.5  go there now!
Books, mystery books and; suspense booksnovels, romance books and; women's fiction books, history books and; biographies.No matter what you like to read, 1bookstreet has the Book for you. 

Quality Books.com
Over 700 Books Titles to Build Your Future: Divorce, Will & Banruptcy Kits, Work at Home Directories, Wholesale Directories, Tapes, CD's ... and much more!

Cherry Valley Books
Specialty children's bookstore focusing on children's books, parenting books, young adult books, book reviews.

Booksforcooks.com
8,000 cookbooks - books for every taste & palate from Books for Cooks, the cookbook bookstore on the Web!

Booksamillion.com
Offers better prices on the books you want. Millionaire's Club members save 55% off bestsellers, 46% off features and 37% off in-stock hardcovers. Paperbacks, magazines, gourmet coffee and gifts are also discounted every day.

Better Life Books.com
Better Life Books offers the best in Christian and Religious books and music as well as Childrens books and Bibles.

BusinessBookReview.com
Useful, best in business knowledge.

Ebookstand.com
eBookstand the digital publsiher of eBooks. Publishes all eBooks in less than 5 day for no more than $199

ElephantBooks.com
your primary source for out-of-print, fine used, old, rare and antiquarian books. Search our fast on-line database and order your books directly from us, guaranteed to be shipped within 24 hours.
 

* results or ranks are based on a 10 point scale judging the quality and honesty of the site. All ratings are opinions of Web Pages Now! and its staff.
Jokes by Steven Wright