The Kindness of Strangers

John Boswell's "Chritsianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality" won the 1981 American Book Award for History.

This study argues that child abandonment was common among all classes and morally acceptable from antiquity until the Renaissance. Using a variety of sources, Boswell examines the evidence, presenting a history of the abandoned child and illustrating the changing meaning of family.In this work, John Boswell argues that child abandonment was a common and morally acceptable practice from antiquity until the Renaissance. Using a variety of sources, including drama and mythological-literary texts as well as demographics, Boswell examines evidence that parents of all classes gave up unwanted chldren, "exposing" them in public places, donating them to the church, or, in later centuries, delivering them to foundling hospitals. This work presents a history of the abandoned child that helps to illustrate the changing meaning of family.