(p. vii ) Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge all of the child welfare scholars who have gone before us. This book has been built upon a foundation laid by such innovative scholars and researchers as Jane Addams, Mary Richmond, Charles Loring Brace, Julia Lathrope, Grace Abbott, Edith Abbott, Alfred Kahn, Alfred Kadushin, Henry Maas and Richard Engler, Helen Jeter, C. Henry Kempe, Douglas Besharov, Alvin Schorr, David Fanshel and Eugene Shinn, Shirley Jenkins and Elaine Norman, David Gil, Ann Shyne, Anthony Maluccio, Eli Newberger, Jeanne Giovannoni, Richard Barth, Peter Pecora, Tina Rzepnicki, Richard Gelles, Lela Costin, Kermit Wiltse, Ted Stein, Rosemary Sarri, Thomas McDonald, John Schuerman, Nigel Parton, Rosina Becerra, Alfreda Iglehart, Jill Duerr Berrick, Sara McLanahan, Greg Duncan, Neil Gilbert, Robert Goerge, Fred Wulczyn, Michael Sherraden, Brian Wharf, Susan Wells, Martin Wolins, Art Emlen, and numerous others in addition to many of the contributors to this volume. Without the groundbreaking work of these scholars, the field would still be in its infancy.

We would also like to thank all of the contributing authors for their commitment to improving the lives of children. Truly successful academics must have a passion for their work to sustain them through the long hours needed to produce such strong papers. They also graciously and patiently endured our sometimes lengthy editorial process, for which we remain eternally grateful. Putting together such a wide range of topics in a coherent fashion, even within the same substantive area of inquiry, has been rewarding and challenging. We would also like to thank the very people who will use this book: child welfare workers, supervisors, and administrators (current and future), who have an impossible job but remain committed and open to the possibility that research can help to guide the way.

This volume would not have been possible without the help of several key people. First, we would like to thank our research assistant, Alan McLuckie, for his outstanding conceptual, editorial, and structural contributions. He knows this volume as well as the editors do and has certainly given more than he has gained. We would also like to thank Oxford University Press for the opportunity to pull this text together. We are grateful for all the help provided by Mallory Jenson at OUP, including her tolerance, flexibility, and careful review of the material. We are particularly grateful to Maura Roessner, who has led the development of this volume from the outset and provided outstanding editorial guidance. In the current publishing climate, with electronic media (including peer-reviewed journals) vying with book publishers for the same limited readership, Oxford University Press has managed to maintain its high standards and continues to lead the world in academic publications.

(p. viii ) Finally, we would like to acknowledge the many children who, throughout the last half-century, have spent time growing up in the modern child welfare system. While your personal stories and struggles are not captured here, they are not forgotten. They are the substance of child welfare. We hope to contribute, in some small way, to making everyone’s childhood a time of wonder, security, and hope. To that end, let us move toward eliminating child poverty, which remains the root cause of child maltreatment.