Ghosts of the orphanage : a story of mysterious deaths, a conspiracy of silence, and a search for justice
by Kenneally, Christine (Author)
Summary
"A shocking expose of the dark, secret history of Catholic orphanages--the violence, abuse, and even murder that took place within their walls-- and a call to hold the powerful to account. More than 5 million Americans passed through orphanages in the 20th century alone. At its peak in the 1930s, th... Full description
Summary: |
"A shocking expose of the dark, secret history of Catholic orphanages--the violence, abuse, and even murder that took place within their walls-- and a call to hold the powerful to account. More than 5 million Americans passed through orphanages in the 20th century alone. At its peak in the 1930s, the American orphanage system included more than 1,600 institutions, partly supported with public funding but usually run by religious orders, including the Catholic Church. Ghosts of the Orphanage is the result of seven years of investigation, and what Christine Keneally found was shocking, yet hiding in plain sight. Terrible things, abuse, both physical and psychological, and even deaths have happened in orphanages for many years. The survivors have been telling their stories for a long time, but no one has been listening. People are too often unwilling to accept their stories. And their options for recourse have been limited by the years it has taken many survivors to process their trauma, tell their stories, and pursue legal action. Centering her story on St. Joseph's, a Catholic orphanage in Vermont, Keneally investigates and shares the stories of survivors. She has fought to expose the truth and hold the powerful -- many of them Catholic priests and nuns -- to account. And it is working. As these stories have come to light, the laws in Vermont have been forced to change, including the statute of limitations on prosecuting them. Told with human compassion, novelistic detail, and a powerful sense of purpose, Ghosts of the Orphanage is not only a gripping story but a reckoning. It is proof that real evil lurks at the edges of our society, and that, if we have the courage, we can bring it into the light and defeat it"-- |
---|---|
Physical Description: |
viii, 367 pages ; 25 cm |
Bibliography: |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
ISBN: |
9781541758513 154175851X |
Author Notes: |
Christine Kenneally was born in Melbourne, Australia. She is a journalist who writes on science, language and culture. She received an Honors BA in English and Linguistics from Melbourne University and completed a PhD in Linguistics at Cambridge University in England. After living in Iowa City for three-and-a-half years, she moved to New York City where she started writing for Feed, the Internet's first magazine, founded by Stephanie Syman and Steven Johnson, among other publications. Her science articles include one about new field of epigenetics, the study of the forces that act on and effect alterations to DNA Her first book, The First Word: The Search for the Origins of Language, is about the relatively new field of evolutionary linguistics starring such figures as cognitive scientist Philip Lieberman, primatologist Sue Savage-Rumbaugh and psychologists Steven Pinker and Paul Bloom. Kenneally's second book, The Invisible History of the Human Race: How DNA and History Shape Our Identities and Our Futures, draws on cutting-edge research to reveal how both historical artifacts and DNA tell us where we come from and where we may be headed. She was shortlisted for the Stella Prize 2015 for this title. Her title The Past May Not Make You Feel Better, won the Bragg UNSW Press Prize for Science Writing 2015. (Bowker Author Biography) |