How should society care for the children of parents who cannot, will not, or choose not to care for their sons and daughters full time? What is the best way to bring up children when both parents work? These are contemporary concerns, yet the same questions have been asked - and answered - throughout American history.

In Minding the Children, Geraldine Youcha gives us the first well-documented overview of the different ways children in this country have been reared, showing how the myth of the full-time mother does not fit the complex realities of the past any more than it does the challenges of our own time.

From the apprenticeship system in Colonial times, when men commonly acted as surrogate parents, to the largely forgotten federally funded day-care centers of World War II, when Rosie the Riveter toiled in the factories, Youcha vividly demonstrates that children in the past have often been cared for by adults other than, or in addition to, their biological parents.

Shared mothering has a long tradition in American life. During the slavery era, white children were often raised by black "mammies," while groups of black children too young to work in the fields were cared for by older slaves or sometimes by the white mistresses of the plantations - an early form of day care. In the mid-nineteenth century, utopian communities such as the Shakers and the Oneidans experimented with communal child rearing, discouraging a close personal attachment between parent and child.

At the turn of the century, settlement houses provided comprehensive day care for immigrant working mothers, helping to move newcomers into the mainstream.

Poor children left adrift by death, desertion, or parental illness were gathered into orphanages, considered at the time to be "ideal institutions." Foster family care existed alongside and gradually replaced this group care as a supposedly more humane solution for children who needed to borrow a mother in order to thrive. Meanwhile, upper-class children were largely brought up by nannies, governesses, and prestigious boarding schools.

Minding the Children, filled with moving stories and unexpected insights, provides an essential historical context to illuminate the current national debate on child care. Geraldine Youcha draws upon historical records and oral and written histories - including autobiographies, diaries, contemporary newspaper accounts, and present-day interviews - to create a vibrant reconstruction of our forgotten past.